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The moon was formed by a violent, head-on collision between the early Earth and a “planetary embryo” called Theia approximately 100 million years after the Earth formed, UCLA geochemists and colleagues report.
Scientists had already known about this high-speed crash, which occurred almost 4.5 billion years ago, but many thought the Earth collided with Theia (pronounced THAY-eh) at an angle of 45 degrees or more – a powerful side-swipe, simulated in the 2012 YouTube video shown above.
New evidence reported Jan. 29 in the journal Science substantially strengthens the case for a head-on assault.
The researchers analyzed seven rocks brought to the Earth from the moon by the Apollo 12, 15 and 17 missions, as well as six volcanic rocks from the Earth's mantle – five from Hawaii and one from Arizona.
The key to reconstructing the giant impact was a chemical signature revealed in the rocks' oxygen atoms. Oxygen makes up 90 percent of rocks' volume and 50 percent of their weight.
More than 99.9 percent of Earth's oxygen is O-16, so called because each atom contains eight protons and eight neutrons. But there also are small quantities of heavier oxygen isotopes: O-17, which have one extra neutron, and O-18, which have two extra neutrons. Earth, Mars and other planetary bodies in our solar system each has a unique ratio of O-17 to O-16 – each one a distinctive “fingerprint.”
In 2014, a team of German scientists reported in Science that the moon also has its own unique ratio of oxygen isotopes, different from Earth's. The new research finds that is not the case.
“We don't see any difference between the Earth's and the moon's oxygen isotopes; they're indistinguishable,” said Edward Young, lead author of the new study and a UCLA professor of geochemistry and cosmochemistry.
Young's research team used state-of-the-art technology and techniques to make extraordinarily precise and careful measurements, and verified them with UCLA's new mass spectrometer.
The fact that oxygen in rocks on the Earth and our moon share chemical signatures was very telling, Young said. Had Earth and Theia collided in a glancing side blow, the vast majority of the moon would have been made mainly of Theia, and the Earth and moon should have different oxygen isotopes. A head-on collision, however, likely would have resulted in similar chemical composition of both Earth and the moon.
“Theia was thoroughly mixed into both the Earth and the moon, and evenly dispersed between them,” Young said. “This explains why we don't see a different signature of Theia in the moon versus the Earth.”
Theia, which did not survive the collision (except that it now makes up large parts of Earth and the moon) was growing and probably would have become a planet if the crash had not occurred, Young said. Young and some other scientists believe the planet was approximately the same size as the Earth; others believe it was smaller, perhaps more similar in size to Mars.
Another interesting question is whether the collision with Theia removed any water that the early Earth may have contained.
After the collision – perhaps tens of millions of year later – small asteroids likely hit the Earth, including ones that may have been rich in water, Young said.
Collisions of growing bodies occurred very frequently back then, he said, although Mars avoided large collisions.
A head-on collision was initially proposed in 2012 by Matija Cuk, now a research scientist with the SETI Institute, and Sarah Stewart, now a professor at UC Davis; and, separately during the same year by Robin Canup of the Southwest Research Institute.
LUCERNE, Calif. – It was standing room only on Thursday night as a beloved local biologist opened a series of lectures on Lake County's natural environment hosted by Marymount California University's Lakeside Campus.
Dr. Harry Lyons, a biology professor at the Woodland Community College Lake County campus in Clearlake, a longtime resident of Lake County and an expert on Clear Lake, gave the opening talk in “Distinguished Speakers Series.”
In “Lessons from Green Water,” Lyons discussed the Hudson River and Clear Lake, interspersing the fascinating facts of those two aquatic ecosystems with his own original music, playing guitar and singing while accompanied by bassist Rick McCann.
The hour-and-a-half-long presentation can be seen in its entirety in the video above.
The three-part speaker series is co-sponsored by the Friends of Marymount California University (MCU) Lakeside and the Lake County Land Trust.
Future installments will feature archaeologist Dr. John Parker in March and ecologist Catherine Koehler, the Land Trust's executive director and director of the McLaughlin Reserve, in April.
For information call 888-991-5253 or 707-262-0707 or go to www.lakecountylandtrust.org .
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A man sent to state prison for a 1990 homicide in Clearlake Park has been denied parole for the fifth time following a hearing this week.
On Wednesday, the California Board of Parole Hearings denied parole for convicted murderer Kevin Coy Iloff, 50, according to the Lake County District Attorney's Office.
Deputy District Attorney Alan Upton attended the lifer hearing at California State Prison in Corcoran on behalf of the District Attorney’s Office to argue against Iloff’s release.
Iloff pleaded guilty in December 1990 to the second degree murder of 28-year-old Thomas Conatser and the use of a knife, and was sentenced by Judge Robert L. Crone Jr. to 16 years to life on Dec. 21, 1990.
He originally was prosecuted by Andrew S. Blum – now a Lake County Superior Court judge – and was represented by Mitchell Hauptman.
Iloff’s minimum eligible parole date was March 14, 2004. Iloff has had four previous parole consideration hearings, the District Attorney's Office reported.
According to investigation reports, Iloff had been involved in a relationship with the mother of his two children, but they had been separated for a few days, in part because of Iloff’s chronic drug abuse.
On Sept. 22, 1990, the woman was spending the night with Conatser at a home on Fourth Street in Clearlake Park.
At the time of the murder, one of Conatser’s children was sleeping in the same bed as Conatser and the woman. Conatser’s other child and the woman’s two children were asleep in another room.
At 4 a.m., Iloff jimmied the lock to the door, entered the house and the bedroom, and stabbed Conatser under the left armpit while everyone was asleep.
After Iloff stabbed Conatser, he told the woman, “I stuck him, don’t call the cops,” and threatened to kill her, too. He then fled the scene and caught a ride back to Vallejo.
While an investigator from the Clearlake Police Department was at the murder scene with the woman, Iloff called the woman and told her that “if you give me up I’ll do you like I did him.”
A friend of Iloff told investigators that Iloff boasted that if the victim wasn’t dead that he would come back and finish him off.
Iloff told another person that he had grabbed the victim by the hair and said “Wake up. I want you to see who is going to kill you.”
Iloff then fled to Reno, Nev., where he was arrested five days later.
During Iloff’s time in prison he has had 22 disciplinary actions, including fighting, possession of alcohol, refusal to follow orders, assaulting other inmates, threatening a corrections officer and participating in a riot.
In 1999, he was convicted of attempted murder of another inmate while Iloff was incarcerated at Pelican Bay State Prison, according to Upton.
As a result of that conviction Iloff was sentenced to an additional and consecutive five-year prison term that he will have to serve if he is granted parole for the murder of Conatser, Upton reported.
At his initial parole hearing in 2003 Iloff got into a heated exchange with the parole commissioners and refused to attend the hearing. He has since had three other parole hearings scheduled.
At the parole hearing Wednesday, Conatser’s brother was present, as were Conatser’s two sons – who were asleep in the house at the time of the murder – to ask that Iloff's parole be denied.
Upton asked the Board of Prison Hearings commissioners to deny Iloff’s parole on the grounds that he still presented an unreasonable risk of danger to the public if released, and that although Iloff had begun to participate in prison rehabilitation programs, such participation was too recent to demonstrate a sincere reformation of character.
The Board of Prison Hearings commissioners agreed and issued a three-year denial of parole, Upton reported.
Upton said Iloff’s next parole hearing will be in 2019.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Real estate sales in Lake County ended 2015 on an upswing, according to a report from the Lake County Association of Realtors.
LCAOR reported that the number of sales in December increased by 8 percent over November sales.
A total of 93 single family units sold in December compared to 86 in November. LCAOR said the 93 sales were the second-highest number in a month for 2015 with June topping the list at 109 sales.
The median sales price of $216,000 pulled back from the November median sales price of $252,250, which marked the high point for a monthly median price in 2015. The December median was the second-highest monthly sales price for 2015, according to LCAOR.
The 2015 December median sales price of $216,000 was 42-percent higher than the December 2014 median sales price of $152,000. In December of 2014 there were 53 sales making the 93 sales in December 2015 over 75-percent higher on a year-to-year basis, LCAOR reported.
“The last three months of 2015 ended strongly,” said 2016 LCAOR President Erin Woodward. “Both median sales prices and number of sales compared favorably to other months of the year. The real estate community did not know what to expect after the fires and many expected sales to slow, but that was not the case.”
Inventory levels in both November and December fell to four months. The report said a normal level of monthly inventory is considered to be six months.
In some years, LCAOR said the December inventories can be low as sellers wait to list their properties after the holidays. Continued low inventories can lead to a seller’s market.
Sales financed by cash fell to 25.6 percent of the transactions after they made up 47.7 percent of the deals in November. LCAOR said conventional loans accounted for 53.5 percent of the financing with another 10.5 percent of the transactions being financed through FHA loans.
Distressed sales increased to 17 percent of the sales after making up only 4.7 percent of the deals in November, according to the report.
On a statewide basis the California Association of Realtors reported that existing, single-family home sales totaled 405.530 in December, up 9.6 percent from November 2015 and up 10.7 percent from December 2014, LCAOR said.
LCAOR said the median sales price was $489,310 up 2.6 percent from November 2015 and up 8.0 percent from December 2014.
NUMBERS AT A GLANCE
Lake County – December 2015
Median price: $216,000
Median days to sell: 92
Units Sold: 93
Lake County – November 2015
Median price: $252,250
Median days to sell: 107
Units Sold: 86
Lake County – December 2014
Median price: $152,000
Median days to sell: 94
Units Sold: 53
On Thursday Gov. Jerry Brown named the head of the new agency tasked with regulating medical marijuana.
Lori Ajax, 50, of Fair Oaks, has been appointed chief of the Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation at the California Department of Consumer Affairs, Brown's office reported.
In October, Brown signed the three-bill legislative package known as the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act, which was championed by state Sen. Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg), whose district includes Lake County.
That legislation set out to regulate all aspects of the medical marijuana industry, and in so doing created the Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation.
The governor's office said Ajax has been chief deputy director at the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control since 2014, where she has served in several positions since 1995, including deputy division chief, supervising agent in charge and supervising agent.
Ajax is a member of the National Liquor Law Enforcement Association and the St. Sava Mission Foundation, according to Brown's statement on her appointment.
This position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $150,636. Ajax is a Republican, the governor's office reported.
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CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A Kelseyville man who led authorities on a high-speed vehicle chase on Tuesday evening was injured, with his girlfriend later arrested on drug and weapons charges.
Timothy Tolbert, 45, is facing numerous charges in connection to the pursuit as well as the discovery of drugs and weapons at his home, where his girlfriend, 41-year-old Amy Melissa Gregor, was arrested the following day, according to Sgt. Travis Lenz.
Just before 6 p.m. Tuesday Lenz was on routine patrol in the city of Clearlake when he observed a Honda CBR street bike motorcycle, with one rider, traveling eastbound on Lakeshore Drive during hours of darkness, without the front head light illuminated.
As Sgt. Lenz positioned his patrol vehicle behind the motorcycle to initiate a traffic enforcement stop, the rider drove the motorcycle onto the south shoulder of Lakeshore Drive, passing two stopped vehicles which were waiting at the stoplight at the intersection of Old Highway 53, Lenz said.
As the driver reached the intersection, the stoplight turned green, and the motorcycle proceeded through the intersection, heading eastbound and accelerating to a high rate of speed, Lenz said.
Lenz activated his patrol vehicle’s emergency lights and siren, yet the motorcycle failed to yield. He pursued the motorcycle to the intersection of Highway 53 at a high rate of speed.
The motorcyclist completed a right turn onto Highway 53, heading southbound and proceeding n Highway 53 at a high speed. Lenz said the driver continued southbound on Highway 53 until he reached the intersection of Highway 29. At this point, Lenz was several hundred feet behind the suspect vehicle.
Lake County Sheriff's Deputy Walter White, who was located at the intersection, got behind the motorcycle at that time, Lenz said, before the motorcyclist completed a right turn onto Highway 29 and proceeded northbound, continuing to travel at a high rate speed.
Lenz said the motorcyclist completed a right turn off Highway 29 onto Point Lakeview Road. Due to the abrupt turn the suspect made onto Point Lakeview Road, Deputy White had to proceed past Point Lakeview and turn around to safely complete the turn.
Lenz said he then got behind the motorcycle once again. After traveling a few hundred yards, the rider lost control of his motorcycle due to the unsafe speeds at which he was traveling, drove off the road and crashed into a telephone pole guide wire, prior to coming to a stop.
Sgt. Lenz and Deputy White were able to detain the rider, identified as Tolbert, who later was transported via air ambulance out of county for medical treatment due to the extent of his injuries, Lenz said.
The California Highway Patrol responded to the scene and completed the traffic collision investigation, according to Lenz.
Lenz said Tolbert also was confirmed to be on felony probation out of Tehama County for drug-related charges.
This case will be sent to the Lake County District Attorney’s Office for a complaint against Tolbert on charges which include evading a police officer while driving in wanton willful disregard for public safety, evading a police officer while traveling in the opposing lane of traffic and driving on suspended license, Lenz said.
At 11:20 a.m. Wednesday the Clearlake Police Department Investigations Unit responded to the 9300 block of Buffalo Court in Kelseyville to conduct a probation search at Tolbert’s residence, Lenz reported.
During the probation search, Lenz said detectives contacted Gregor, who resides at his home.
At the residence Lenz said detectives located a large amount of heroin packaged for the purpose of sales, a vehicle which had been reported stolen out of Clearlake two days prior, pepper spray, .45-caliber ammunition and a “billy club”-style baton.
Lenz said Gregor is a convicted felon and was placed under arrest for possession of narcotics for the purposes of sale, possession of stolen property, possession of tear gas by a prohibited person, possession of ammunition by a prohibited person and possession of a billy club. Gregor was transported to and booked into the Lake County Jail.
All of the same charges against Gregor additionally will be sent to the Lake County District Attorney’s Office for complaint on Tolbert, due to the fact he is still hospitalized, Lenz said.
The Clearlake Police Department thanked the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and the CHP for their assistance in this investigation.