https://phys.org/earth-news/earth-sciences en-us The latest news on earth sciences and the environment From time to time, when Earth's tectonic plates shift, the planet emits a long, slow belch of carbon dioxide. In a new modeling study published in Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, R. Dietmar Müller and colleagues show how this gas released from deep Earth may have affected the climate over the past billion years. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-advances-plate-tectonics-view-deep.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 07 Nov 2024 16:09:30 EST news650218164 Tree planting has been widely touted as a cost-effective way of reducing global warming, due to trees' ability to store large quantities of carbon from the atmosphere. But, writing in the journal Nature Geoscience, an international group of scientists argue that tree planting at high latitudes will accelerate, rather than decelerate, global warming. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-trees-high-latitudes-arctic-decelerate.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 07 Nov 2024 11:00:01 EST news650193494 Higher temperatures caused by anthropogenic climate change made an ordinary drought into an exceptional drought that parched the American West from 2020–2022. A study by UCLA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration climate scientists has found that evaporation accounted for 61% of the drought's severity, while reduced precipitation only accounted for 39%. The research found that evaporative demand has played a bigger role than reduced precipitation in droughts since 2000, which suggests droughts will become more severe as the climate warms. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-climate-contributing-drought-american-west.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 06 Nov 2024 17:01:03 EST news650134861 The eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai (HTHH) in January 2022 ejected about 2.9 billion tons of volcanic material into the atmosphere and across the South Pacific. In early 2022, a scientific expedition (GEOTRACES GP21) investigated the impact of this monumental event on the biogeochemistry of the South Pacific Gyre (SPG) surface waters. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-volcanic-ash-source-nutrients-hunga.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 06 Nov 2024 11:25:03 EST news650114701 At the end of the last global ice age, the deep-frozen Earth reached a built-in limit of climate change and thawed into a slushy planet. Results from a Virginia Tech-led study provide the first direct geochemical evidence of the slushy planet—otherwise known as the "plumeworld ocean" era—when sky-high carbon dioxide levels forced the frozen Earth into a massive, rapid melting period. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-earth-underwent-massive-rapid-period.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 05 Nov 2024 16:31:06 EST news650046657 An international study, including researchers from The University of Western Australia, has unveiled new pathways to future copper deposits by cracking the code to the metal's origins, a discovery that could reshape the future of copper mining and help meet the surging global demand for the critical resource. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-code-copper-fiery.html Earth Sciences Tue, 05 Nov 2024 08:35:03 EST news650018101 Scientists and environmental activists have consistently called for drastic reductions in meat production as a way to reduce emissions and, in doing so, combat climate change. However, a new analysis concludes that a smaller reduction, borne by wealthier nations, could remove 125 billion tons of carbon dioxide—exceeding the total number of global fossil fuel emissions over the past three years—from the atmosphere. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-small-reductions-meat-production-wealthier.html Earth Sciences Environment Mon, 04 Nov 2024 15:00:02 EST news649935134 If Earth's history were a calendar year, humans would not appear until the last few minutes before midnight on Dec. 31. During the Proterozoic Eon—2.5 billion years to 543 million years ago—the sun was still a young star, much dimmer than today, and Earth required a stronger greenhouse effect to compensate and maintain habitable temperatures for the planet's earliest lifeforms. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-portal-geologist-metamorphic-crucial-feature.html Earth Sciences Mon, 04 Nov 2024 14:46:04 EST news649953961 Imagine that a massive ice sheet covered Canada and oozed down over a large part of the northern United States, like icing spilling down the side of a cake. That was the situation somewhere between 19,000 and 26,000 years ago. The ice sheet covered land all the way south to modern-day Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-reveals-history-global-ice-sheet.html Earth Sciences Environment Mon, 04 Nov 2024 13:14:03 EST news649948441 The Amazon region is a global hotspot of biodiversity and plays a key role in the climate system because of its ability to store large amounts of carbon and its influence on the global water cycle. The rain forest is threatened, however, by climate change as well as by intensified deforestation activities. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-effects-atlantic-circulation-amazon-rainforest.html Earth Sciences Environment Mon, 04 Nov 2024 12:33:04 EST news649945982 Using a sophisticated new modeling approach, researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have estimated carbon dioxide emissions from inland waters to 22 million U.S. lakes, rivers and reservoirs. It marks the first time this approach has been applied at a continental scale, and reveals previous methods may have overestimated CO2 emissions by as much as 25%. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-carbon-emissions-million-stream.html Earth Sciences Environment Mon, 04 Nov 2024 12:28:04 EST news649945681 Fifteen minutes before the massive January 2022 eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano, a seismic wave was recorded by two distant seismic stations. Now, researchers argue that similar early signals could be used to warn of other impending eruptions in remote oceanic volcanoes. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-trigger-tonga-eruption-unstudied-seismic.html Earth Sciences Mon, 04 Nov 2024 11:55:03 EST news649943701 As the Earth faces unprecedented climate change, a look into the planet's deep past may provide vital insights into what may lie ahead. Knowledge of the natural world millions of years ago is fragmented, but a 15-year study of a site in Bolivia by an international team led by Case Western Reserve University provides a comprehensive view of an ancient ecosystem when the Earth was much warmer than today. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-ancient-climate-reconstruction-andes-mountains.html Earth Sciences Environment Mon, 04 Nov 2024 11:46:04 EST news649943161 When torrential rains and powerful winds hit densely populated coastal regions, whole cities can be destroyed—but governments and residents can take precautions with sufficient warning. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-scientist-equation-behavior-atmospheric-rivers.html Earth Sciences Environment Mon, 04 Nov 2024 11:18:04 EST news649941481 Climate change has a profound impact on historical societal transformations. A recent study by Chinese researchers has found that the collapse of the Ming Dynasty, one of the most important dynasties in Chinese history, may have been triggered by the Wanli megadrought, decades earlier than previous thought. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-collapse-ming-dynasty-began-wanli.html Earth Sciences Environment Mon, 04 Nov 2024 10:44:51 EST news649939489 Carbon sinks are important in the fight against climate change as they draw down atmospheric carbon dioxide levels by storing organic carbon in the oceans and soil, for example. Within tropical and subtropical intertidal locations, wetland plant communities, known as mangrove forests, are key carbon sinks of organic matter. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-mangrove-degradation-threatens-carbon-storage.html Earth Sciences Environment Mon, 04 Nov 2024 09:31:46 EST news649935101 Cratons are fascinating yet enigmatic geological formations. Known to be relatively stable portions of the Earth's continental crust, cratons have remained largely unchanged for billions of years. Although cratons have survived many geological events, some are undergoing decratonization—a process characterized by their deformation and eventual destruction. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-geodynamic-mantle-deformation-continental-crust.html Earth Sciences Sun, 03 Nov 2024 12:30:01 EST news649682727 New studies about the Thwaites Glacier, also called the "Doomsday Glacier," have sparked a conversation about geoengineering as a climate change solution. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-doomsday-antarctic-glacier-faster-fueling.html Earth Sciences Environment Sun, 03 Nov 2024 06:00:01 EST news649680830 Africa's Sahara Desert may be considered a vast expanse of barren sand with limited vegetation, an extreme environment for plants and animals to thrive, but life always finds a way. Indeed, vegetation growth in the desert has waxed and waned over millennia, with periods of enhanced growth termed "greening." https://phys.org/news/2024-11-african-sahara-greening-northern-hemisphere.html Earth Sciences Environment Sat, 02 Nov 2024 10:00:02 EDT news649673954 The Salton Sea, California's largest lake by surface area, is experiencing an increasing rate of shoreline retreat following a policy change that shifted more water from the Colorado River to San Diego, according to a newly published study. The resulting dried lakebed is creating more polluted dust from dried agricultural runoff that affects nearby communities, researchers said. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-california-salton-sea-receding-greater.html Earth Sciences Environment Fri, 01 Nov 2024 12:24:45 EDT news649682679 As heat waves become more intense, cities are looking for strategies that can help keep neighborhoods cooler. A new tool developed by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin has already helped identify potential solutions in Houston, a city where the impact of heat can vary significantly in different communities. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-trees-cool-roofs-vulnerable-houston.html Earth Sciences Environment Fri, 01 Nov 2024 10:10:18 EDT news649674615 A trio of atmospheric scientists at Colorado State University has found evidence suggesting that western boundary currents have a bigger impact on local climate variability than has been previously thought. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-western-boundary-currents-bigger-impact.html Earth Sciences Environment Fri, 01 Nov 2024 09:35:06 EDT news649672498 A new study has revealed significant acceleration in the upper-ocean circulation of the equatorial Pacific over the past 30 years. This acceleration is primarily driven by intensified atmospheric winds, leading to increased oceanic currents that are both stronger and shallower, with potential impacts on regional and global climate patterns, including the frequency and intensity of El Niño and La Niña events. The study provides a spatial view of these long-term trends from observations, adding at least another decade of data from previous studies. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-reveals-pacific-upper-ocean-circulation.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 31 Oct 2024 15:46:03 EDT news649608361 Wastewater contains nutrients that can overfeed algae, leading to harmful algal blooms and pollution issues in the ocean and other waterways. A new study by researchers at Penn State tracked how these nutrients migrate from disposal sites in the Florida Keys, and the results have already informed wastewater practices in the region. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-scientists-wastewater-florida-keys-impact.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 31 Oct 2024 15:35:04 EDT news649607701 With wildfires growing more frequent and more intense in many parts of the world, scientists are looking to the past to better understand where and when fires have burned. Lakes and wetlands, which capture airborne charcoal particles when they fall from the atmosphere, have provided most records of ancient fires, or paleofires. Now, researchers have found a new tool to help reconstruct fire history: bat poop. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-charcoal-guano-reconstruct-regional-histories.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 31 Oct 2024 13:07:02 EDT news649598821 In perhaps the first long-term study of CO2 fluxes in northern forests growing on permafrost, an Osaka Metropolitan University-led research team has found that climate change increased not only the sources of carbon, but also the CO2 sinks. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-year-climate-impact-permafrost-forests.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 31 Oct 2024 12:41:10 EDT news649597266 As the climate warms and Arctic permafrost thaws, some of the toxic elements locked away in it are starting to emerge and could contaminate the water supplies that many northern communities rely on. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-northern-toxic-metals-permafrost.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 30 Oct 2024 16:26:15 EDT news649524364 Like most lakes in the world, Lake Geneva is an emitter of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide (CO2). Annually, it produces as much CO2 as the automobile transport of the city of Lausanne (≃ 150,000 inhabitants). This phenomenon—the production of CO2 by lakes—has been known for years. There is, however, widespread debate as to the mechanisms at work. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-scientists-enigma-lake-geneva-emits.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 30 Oct 2024 16:18:04 EDT news649523881 Phytoplankton—microscopic plant-like organisms—are the foundation of the marine food web, sustaining everything from tiny fish to multi-ton whales while also playing a critical role in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-global-fleet-undersea-robots-reveals.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 30 Oct 2024 15:42:17 EDT news649521729 A new study published in Nature unveils a surprising discovery: a substantial amount of meltwater is temporarily stored within the Greenland Ice Sheet during summer months. For the first time, an international group of researchers was able to quantify meltwater with positioning data. The finding challenges current models of how ice sheets contribute to global sea level rise. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-large-meltwater-accumulation-revealed-greenland.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 30 Oct 2024 14:48:06 EDT news649518480