Worth its salt
The scenic canyons of Canyonlands National Park in Utah owe their beauty to common salt.
In the March issue of the Geological Society of America Bulletin, scientists present calculations and field observations of the park's long, vertical-walled canyons called grabens.
Patrick Walsh and Daniel Schultz-Ela, both of the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin, confirm earlier suggestions that the grabens probably formed because a hard rock layer lay atop a squishier salt layer. The study provides new details on how the salt flowed toward the Colorado River, causing the overlying rock layer to flex and then fracture along pairs of faults to create the canyons.
Studying the process could help researchers better understand how salt behaves in other areas, such as oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere.
Boring topic
Do you find today's newspaper tedious? Perhaps we've plotted to bore you to death.
New research confirms that people who are more likely to be bored also are more likely to be paranoid.
The study, from scientists at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, tested more than 100 undergraduate students for traits including boredom proneness and mild paranoia. Men, it seems, are particularly more susceptible to being bored - and paranoid. Also, the students who were more self-reflective - that is, more inclined to severely scrutinize themselves - were more likely to suffer boredom and paranoia.
The research appears in April's issue of Personality and Individual Differences.
New moons
Jupiter now has 52 known moons.
Last week, astronomers announced finding eight never-before-seen moons around Jupiter. They are relatively small and thus faint, which is why they had not been detected before.
Scott Sheppard and David Jewitt, both of the University of Hawaii, and Jan Kleyna of Cambridge University announced the new moons in e-mail alerts from the International Astronomical Union. The astronomers made the discovery in February using digital cameras mounted on telescopes on Mauna Kea, Hawaii.
More Jupiter moon discoveries may be coming soon. Mr. Sheppard said he thinks there are about 100 of these irregular moons bigger than 0.6 miles across and that many may be found within the next few months.
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