https://phys.org/earth-news/earth-sciences en-us The latest news on earth sciences and the environment New research from Dartmouth College provides the first evidence that the Arctic's frozen soil is the dominant force shaping Earth's northernmost rivers. Permafrost, the thick layer of soil that stays frozen for two or more years at a time, is the reason that Arctic rivers are uniformly confined to smaller areas and shallower valleys than rivers to the south, according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-permafrost-arctic-rivers-lot-carbon.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 01 Feb 2024 15:56:07 EST news626025363 While much of the world is grappling with rising sea levels due to the melting of Greenland's ice sheet, the situation on the Greenlandic mainland is almost the opposite. The land is rising faster than the current sea level. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-rapid-climate-greenland-bedrock-small.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 01 Feb 2024 15:05:03 EST news626022302 Governments and businesses are relying on dangerous amounts of future removal of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, instead of more rapidly reducing emissions and phasing out fossil fuels. This problem is partly due to an incomplete picture of the damaging consequences of carbon dioxide removal for people, food security and natural ecosystems, according to new research published in Science. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-highlights-dangerous-overreliance-future.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 01 Feb 2024 14:00:01 EST news626003153 A study led by scientists at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil has shown that the Rio Grande Rise (RGR), a possibly continental basaltic plateau and chain of seamounts now submerged in the South Atlantic Ocean some 1,200 km from the coast of Brazil, was once a giant tropical island, rich in minerals and covered with vegetation. Geologists have dated sediments from the formation to between 45 million and 40 million years ago. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-rio-grande-giant-mineral-rich.html Earth Sciences Thu, 01 Feb 2024 11:58:04 EST news626011081 Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, in Sweden, have discovered a change in what scientists already knew about global warming dynamics. It had been widely accepted since the 1950s that global temperature rises were not consistent throughout the day and night, with greater nighttime warming being observed. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-temperature-difference-day-night-affect.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 01 Feb 2024 10:57:20 EST news626007437 Mangroves and saltmarshes sequester large amounts of carbon, mitigating the greenhouse effect. New research from the University of Gothenburg shows that these environments are perhaps twice as effective as previously thought. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-tidal-landscapes-greater-carbon-previously.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 01 Feb 2024 09:44:07 EST news626003037 Trees are struggling to sequester heat-trapping carbon dioxide (CO2) in warmer, drier climates, meaning that they may no longer serve as a solution for offsetting humanity's carbon footprint as the planet continues to warm, according to a new study led by Penn State researchers. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-trees-struggle-climate.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 31 Jan 2024 16:10:07 EST news625939801 Geoscientists have uncovered a missing link in the enigmatic story of how the continents developed—a revised origin story that doesn't require the start of plate tectonics or any external factor to explain their formation. Instead, the findings published last week in Nature Communications rely solely on internal geological forces that occurred within oceanic plateaus that formed during the first few hundred million years of Earth's history. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-uncover-source-real-continents.html Earth Sciences Wed, 31 Jan 2024 15:59:03 EST news625939141 Days after a wildfire, a type of smoke can linger in the atmosphere that contains tiny, brown, light-absorbing particles known as tar balls. These particles are believed to have a significant impact on Earth's radiative balance, and as a result, a role in both the warming and cooling of the atmosphere. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-scientists-reveal-tar-particles-wildfire.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 31 Jan 2024 13:40:03 EST news625930801 The Hadley circulation is a key atmospheric circulation pattern in the tropics. It helps even out the temperature between the equator and the poles by moving energy and momentum toward higher latitudes. However, recent studies indicate that the Hadley circulation cells have expanded toward the poles in the 21st century, increasing by several degrees each year. This expansion can have a substantial impact on the global weather and climate, resulting in adverse events like heat waves, droughts, and tropical cyclones https://phys.org/news/2024-01-decode-key-airflow-pattern-impacting.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 31 Jan 2024 11:32:48 EST news625923165 A team of scientists has sifted through two decades' worth of climate data collected by NASA laser pulses, and say it both paints a sobering picture and underscores the need for such missions to continue. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-space-lasers-unearthed-plethora-climate.html Earth Sciences Wed, 31 Jan 2024 11:17:07 EST news625922221 Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have concluded that the methane uptake in dry landscapes exceeds methane emissions from wet areas across the ice-free part of Greenland. The results of the new study contribute important knowledge to climate models. The researchers are now investigating whether the same finding applies to other polar regions. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-greenland-absorbs-methane-emits.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 31 Jan 2024 09:30:20 EST news625915603 One of the many effects of global warming is sea-level rise due to the melting and retreat of the Earth's ice sheets and glaciers. As the sea level rises, large areas of densely populated coastal land could ultimately become uninhabitable without extensive coastal modification. In order to stave off this possibility, carbon emissions need to reach net negative, a state that is hard to achieve under current circumstances. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-geoengineering-greenland-ice-sheet-loss.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 30 Jan 2024 14:47:04 EST news625848421 Marine anoxia is characterized by the oceans being severely depleted in dissolved oxygen, making them toxic and thus having devastating impacts on the organisms inhabiting them. One such event, known as Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 (OAE2), occurred ~93.5 million years ago across the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary of the Upper Cretaceous and lasted for up to 700,000 years. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-global-widespread-ocean-anoxia-million.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 30 Jan 2024 06:50:01 EST news625744922 Here's a moment that almost everyone has experienced—you drop your phone screen down on a hard surface and hear the telltale crunch. The screen is cracked but you don't know how bad. You pick up the phone and survey the damage. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-explore-fractures-nucleate-propagate.html Earth Sciences Mon, 29 Jan 2024 11:01:14 EST news625748470 As part of the "VeWA" research consortium, researchers from the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Center, along with international colleagues, have investigated the precipitation and flora of Central Asia during the Eocene period. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-team-vegetation-rainfall-central-asia.html Earth Sciences Environment Mon, 29 Jan 2024 10:37:48 EST news625747065 Researchers from The University of Western Australia examined 3.5 billion-year-old hydrothermal vent sediments and discovered clues about the origin and early evolution of life. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-billion-year-hydrothermal-vent-sediments.html Earth Sciences Mon, 29 Jan 2024 10:26:02 EST news625746361 Pollen can help scientists track changes in vegetation through time, as they respond to moderations of the climate, be that glaciation or deglaciation with transitions into and out of ice ages. Furthermore, it can help elucidate the interplay between climate and the impact early human settlement exploitation of the natural world had on forests. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-pollen-diaries-polar-ice-climate.html Earth Sciences Environment Mon, 29 Jan 2024 10:20:01 EST news625744885 A team of geoscientists, Earth scientists and environmental scientists affiliated with several institutions in Germany, the U.S. and the Netherlands has found a link between cold snaps and pandemics during the Roman Empire. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-link-cold-snaps-roman-empire.html Earth Sciences Environment Mon, 29 Jan 2024 10:10:01 EST news625744843 They are among the most productive and biodiverse areas of the world's oceans: coastal upwelling regions along the eastern boundaries of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. There, equatorward winds cause near-surface water to move away from the coast. This brings cold, nutrient-rich water from the depths to the surface, inducing the growth of phytoplankton and providing the basis for a rich marine ecosystem in these regions. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-coastal-upwelling.html Earth Sciences Environment Fri, 26 Jan 2024 14:00:01 EST news625484248 An international team of chemical and environmental engineers has found that oil sands operations in Canada are emitting significantly more pollutants into the air than previously thought. In their study, reported in the journal Science, the group collected air samples using airplanes and tested them in their lab. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-pollution-leaking-atmosphere-oil-sands.html Earth Sciences Environment Fri, 26 Jan 2024 09:33:52 EST news625484029 As part of the Ice Memory initiative, Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) researchers, with colleagues from the University of Fribourg and Ca' Foscari University of Venice as well as the Institute of Polar Sciences of the Italian National Research Council (CNR), analyzed ice cores drilled in 2018 and 2020 from the Corbassière glacier at Grand Combin in the canton of Valais. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-glacier-destroys-important-climate-archive.html Earth Sciences Environment Fri, 26 Jan 2024 05:00:01 EST news625417570 An international study led by scientists at the Yale School of Public Health warns that ozone-related deaths will rise significantly in many parts of the world over the next two decades unless current climate and air quality regulations are strengthened. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-ozone-deaths-stricter-climate.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 25 Jan 2024 13:58:05 EST news625413482 An international study of temperature variations in 12 caves around the world shows that a large part of the Earth's freshwater reserves available for immediate consumption can be at risk due to climate change. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-climate-planet-largest-reserves.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 25 Jan 2024 12:04:03 EST news625406641 A team of geographers, climatologists and tree ring specialists affiliated with multiple institutions in the U.S. has found the number and degree of hot droughts in the western U.S. is unprecedented in the modern era. In their project, reported in the journal Science Advances, the group studied tree ring and historical drought data over the years 1553 to 2020. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-hot-droughts-western-common-centuries.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 25 Jan 2024 09:56:41 EST news625398998 A research group from Nagoya University in Japan has found that larger, slower-moving typhoons are more likely to be resilient against global warming. However, compact, faster-moving storms are more likely to be sensitive. These findings suggest an improved method to project the strength of typhoons under global warming conditions. The report is published in Geophysical Research Letters. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-global-bigger-effect-compact-fast.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 24 Jan 2024 11:43:03 EST news625318981 Groundwater is rapidly declining across the globe, often at accelerating rates. Writing in the journal Nature, UC Santa Barbara researchers present the largest assessment of groundwater levels around the world, spanning nearly 1,700 aquifers. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-global-groundwater-depletion-inevitable.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 24 Jan 2024 11:00:01 EST news625307317 Over this wet summer, Melburnians and Sydneysiders have had to think twice about cooling off at their local beach. Heavy rainfall has swollen rivers and pumped pollutants, nutrients and murky fresh water far out to sea. Swimmers at Port Phillip Bay beaches are emerging coated in brown goo, while Sydney's seas were contaminated last week. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-floodwater-sea-meter-thick-layer.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 23 Jan 2024 10:22:57 EST news625227774 If the world is warming, why are our winters getting colder? Indeed, East Asia and North America have experienced frequent extreme weather events since the 2000s that defy average climate change projections. Many experts have blamed Arctic warming and a weakening jet stream due to declining Arctic sea ice, but climate model experiments have not adequately demonstrated their validity. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-cold-east-asia-north-america.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 23 Jan 2024 10:15:03 EST news625227301 Tipping elements of the Earth system should be considered global commons, researchers argue in a new paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). https://phys.org/news/2024-01-fostering-global-cooperation-critical-safeguard.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 23 Jan 2024 03:59:45 EST news625204779