Oceanographers Find “Heat Bombs” Destroying Arctic Sea Ice
A team led by physical oceanographers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego shows in a new study how plumes…
Earth News
Climate Scientists Show Flooding May Triple in the Mountains of Asia Due to Global Warming
A team of Swiss and international climate scientists has shown that the risk of glacial lake outburst floods in the Himalayan region and the Tibetan…
Hydropower Can Help States Afford to Meet Net-Zero Emissions Targets by 2050
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts recently passed a climate bill that sets a target of net-zero emissions for the state by the year 2050. The bill…
Global Warming Could Lead to the Melting of More Than a Third of Antarctic Ice Shelves, Huge Rise in Sea Levels
Data collected using the MAR climate model developed at ULiège indicate that this could happen as early as the end of this century, or even…
New “Key-Hole Surgery” Technique to Extract Metals From the Earth – Could Revolutionize the Future of Mining
A team of international researchers, including Dr. Rich Crane from the Camborne School of Mines, University of Exeter, have developed a new method to extract…
Plastic Pollution in the Deep Sea: A Geological Perspective on a Global Problem
A new focus article in the May issue of Geology summarizes research on plastic waste in marine and sedimentary environments. Authors I.A. Kane of the Univ. of…
Compelling Patterns in Bothnian Bay Before the Breakup
Before it is wiped away by spring melting, sea ice in the northern Baltic Sea displays some compelling patterns. Unlike the sea ice that caps…
Yamatosaurus: New Duckbilled Dinosaur Discovered in Japan
An international team of paleontologists has identified a new genus and species of hadrosaur or duck-billed dinosaur, Yamatosaurus izanagii, on one of Japan’s southern islands….
Two of the Most Destructive Forces of Nature – Earthquakes and Tsunamis – May Be a Bigger Threat Than Thought
Two of the most destructive forces of nature — earthquakes and tsunamis — might actually be more of a threat than current estimates according to…
Red Sea Is No Longer a Baby Ocean: Hidden Structures Reveal 13 Million Years of Seafloor Spreading
It is 2,250 kilometers long, but only 355 kilometers wide at its widest point — on a world map, the Red Sea hardly resembles an…
Inactive Oil Wells May Be a Big Source of Methane Emissions
Geologist studies greenhouse gas emissions from uncapped, idle wells in Texas. Uncapped, idle oil wells could be leaking millions of kilograms of methane each year…
Environmental Scientists Want to Extract Carbon-Neutral “Biofuel” From Lakes
Lakes could be suitable for the extraction of methane for energy production. Lakes store huge amounts of methane. In a new study, environmental scientists at…
Glacier Avalanches – With Potential Dire Consequences – More Common Than Thought
One tends to think of mountain glaciers as slow moving, their gradual passage down a mountainside visible only through a long series of satellite imagery…
Scientists Map Rivers of Pollution in the Sky
Windy regions high in the atmosphere can transport pollutants like dust or soot thousands of miles around the world and disrupt everyday life for thousands…
Wildfires and Smoke Cause “Black Sky” in Siberia
Numerous fires have filled skies with smoke, causing air quality issues in Omsk. Russian emergency services have reported an abnormally high number of fires in…
Harvard Researchers Say Antarctic Ice-Sheet Melting to Lift Sea Level 30% Higher Than Thought
New calculations show the rise due to warming would be 30% above forecasts. Global sea level rise associated with the possible collapse of the West…
Cave Deposits Reveal Permafrost Thawed 400,000 Years Ago, When Temperatures Were Not Much Higher Than Today
Cave deposits reveal Pleistocene permafrost thaw, absent predicted levels of CO2 release. The vast frozen terrain of Arctic permafrost thawed several times in North America…
Sounding the Seafloor With Light: Mapping the Shallows With Freely Available Satellite Data
Researchers work to map shallow waters with freely available data and cloud computing. The shallow waters around islands and continental coastlines are important for human…