https://phys.org/earth-news/ en-us Earth science research, climate change, and global warming. The latest news and updates from Phys.org 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 Millions of tons of plastic waste enter the oceans each year. The sun's ultraviolet light and ocean turbulence break down these plastics into invisible nanoparticles that threaten marine ecosystems. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-unmask-nanoplastics-oceans-revealing-true.html Environment Thu, 01 Feb 2024 10:57:14 EST news626007432 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 New Curtin University-led research has estimated that 1,454 avoidable deaths (one person every five days) occurred in Australian capital cities in the past 20 years because of fine particle air pollution from extreme events such as bushfires and dust storms, wood-heater smoke or industrial accidents. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-death-toll-extreme-air-pollution.html Environment Wed, 31 Jan 2024 13:04:08 EST news625928645 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 from the Oxford Martin Program on the Future of Plastics, University of Oxford, have outlined ambitious targets to help deliver a sustainable and net zero plastic economy. In a paper published in Nature, the authors argue for a rethinking of the technical, economic, and policy paradigms that have entrenched the status-quo, one of rising carbon emissions and uncontrolled pollution. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-scientists-ambitious-roadmap-circular-carbon.html Environment Wed, 31 Jan 2024 11:00:01 EST news625914434 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 In remote Antarctica, Colombian marine biologist Paulo Tigreros dips a net into the icy waters in his hunt for microplastics in what should be one of the best-preserved ecosystems in the world. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-antarctica-scientists-extent-microplastics.html Environment Tue, 30 Jan 2024 12:48:35 EST news625841310 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 New research into the marine phosphorus cycle is deepening our understanding of the impact of human activities on ecosystems in coastal seas. The research, co-led by the University of East Anglia, in partnership with the Sino-UK Joint Research Centre at the Ocean University of China, looked at the impact of aerosols and river runoff on microalgae in the coastal waters of China. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-pollutants-aerosols-river-runoff-marine.html Environment Tue, 30 Jan 2024 05:00:01 EST news625766224 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 Skiers keen for slick runs are leaving toxic PFAS "forever chemicals" behind on ski slopes, research by The James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen and the University of Graz in Austria has revealed. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-pfas-chemicals-world-slopes-reveals.html Environment Fri, 26 Jan 2024 10:42:32 EST news625488147 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 The 1972 Clean Water Act protects the "waters of the United States" but does not precisely define which streams and wetlands this phrase covers, leaving it to presidential administrations, regulators, and courts to decide. As a result, the exact coverage of Clean Water Act rules is difficult to estimate. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-white-house-deregulates-wetlands-streams.html Environment Thu, 25 Jan 2024 14:00:01 EST news625399961 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