https://phys.org/earth-news/earth-sciences en-us The latest news on earth sciences and the environment Most Americans can expect wetter winters in the future due to global warming, according to a new study led by a University of Illinois Chicago scientist. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-climate-wetter-winters.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 26 Sep 2024 17:03:49 EDT news646589025 What do Venice, Jakarta, Manilla and Bangkok have in common? They are or were sinking cities. Wageningen researcher Philip Minderhoud studies the causes of subsidence in these cities. Groundwater extraction plays an important part in all cases. The good news is that this can be avoided. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-city.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 26 Sep 2024 16:26:04 EDT news646586761 Polymetallic nodules are potato-sized formations on the ocean floor that are rich in minerals such as nickel, cobalt, and manganese. Their concentration of rare, economically important minerals has made the nodules the focus of controversial deep-sea mining enterprises. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-unexpected-role-magnetic-microbes-deep.html Earth Sciences Thu, 26 Sep 2024 15:28:03 EDT news646583282 In a new study, a team of researchers suggests that 4 billion years ago, plate tectonics likely looked closer to what we experience today than previously thought. The team published its findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-billion-years-plate-tectonics-closer.html Earth Sciences Thu, 26 Sep 2024 11:53:03 EDT news646570381 The number of days per year that are simultaneously extremely hot, dry, and have a high fire risk have as much as tripled since 1970 in some parts of South America. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-drought-south-america.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 26 Sep 2024 11:00:01 EDT news646567141 The five largest continental transform earthquakes since 2000 all originated on a branch of the main fault—and two researchers predict that the next great earthquake of this type will also get its start on a branch or splay fault. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-faults-ramps-great-continental-earthquakes.html Earth Sciences Thu, 26 Sep 2024 09:45:03 EDT news646562701 Mining of minerals is important for the advancement of modern society. However, over many years of mining, shallow resources are depleting with the need to migrate to deep levels. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-approach-rockburst-mitigation-deep.html Earth Sciences Wed, 25 Sep 2024 16:31:03 EDT news646500661 Accurate snow cover information is crucial for studying global climate and hydrology. However, deep learning approaches for retrieving snow cover fraction (SCF) often suffer from limitations in training data dependence and interpretability. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-deep-framework-fraction.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 25 Sep 2024 16:10:14 EDT news646499402 Recent projections show that Tropical Storm Helene, the latest storm brewing in the Gulf of Mexico, is heading for Florida and tracking toward the state's panhandle. An interactive map developed by Rice University's Center for Coastal Futures and Adaptive Resilience (CFAR) identifies the top hazardous polluters in the storm's projected path. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-hazardous-polluters-path-tropical-storm.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 25 Sep 2024 15:51:36 EDT news646498291 In the next 30 years, Pacific Island nations such as Tuvalu, Kiribati, and Fiji will experience at least 8 inches (15 centimeters) of sea level rise, according to an analysis by NASA's sea level change science team. This amount of rise will occur regardless of whether greenhouse gas emissions change in the coming years. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-nasa-analysis-irreversible-sea-pacific.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 25 Sep 2024 15:43:42 EDT news646497789 A Dartmouth-led study on ice cores from Alaska and Greenland found that air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels reaches the remote Arctic in amounts large enough to alter its fundamental atmospheric chemistry. The findings illustrate the long reach of fossil fuel emissions and provide support for the importance of clean-air rules, which the team found can reverse the effect. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-ice-cores-pollution-impact-arctic.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 25 Sep 2024 14:07:04 EDT news646492021 Australian climatologists closely monitor atmospheric and oceanic conditions to assess the risk of El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events occurring, which can lead to devastating natural disasters, however these predictions have become somewhat delayed in recent years. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-climatologists-accurate-el-nio-southern.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 25 Sep 2024 12:50:01 EDT news646485968 Today's climate change is man-made. The consensus in the climate science community is unequivocal, but in order to determine just how exceptional current climate change is, we have had to contextualize the present on a much longer time scale. To do this, scientists working in paleoclimatology (the study of past climate) use information from both natural and documentary sources from around the world. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-coral-sediments-reconstruct-million-years.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 25 Sep 2024 12:27:13 EDT news646486026 A new study shows that microorganisms lived deep within the fractured bedrock of Greenland 75 million years ago. The work is published in the journal Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-evidence-life-colonizing-deep-bedrock.html Earth Sciences Wed, 25 Sep 2024 12:13:15 EDT news646485183 During her summer travels to her native Belgium, University of Arizona professor Valerie Trouet noticed something that turned casual curiosity into a major scientific discovery: when the sun hid behind an overcast sky and people around her put on sweaters instead of summer clothes, the weather tended to be warm and dry in Italy, Greece and the Balkans, popular summer escapes for tourists from the cooler climates of central and northern Europe. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-tree-reveal-jet-stream-extreme.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 25 Sep 2024 11:00:01 EDT news646472258 The last ice age peaked around 20,000 years ago and was marked by extensive glaciation and dramatic climate shifts that reshaped Earth's oceans, landscapes and ecosystems. A study led by the University of Arizona suggests that Earth's last ice age may provide crucial insights into future El Niño weather events. El Niño is one of the most influential climate patterns affecting global weather. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-ice-age-clues-advanced-climate.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 25 Sep 2024 11:00:01 EDT news646472261 Researchers led by Ryuhei Nakamura at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS) in Japan and The Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) of Tokyo Institute of Technology have discovered inorganic nanostructures surrounding deep-ocean hydrothermal vents that are strikingly similar to molecules that make life as we know it possible. These nanostructures are self-organized and act as selective ion channels, which create energy that can be harnessed in the form of electricity. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-nanostructures-deep-ocean-floor-hint.html Earth Sciences Wed, 25 Sep 2024 10:36:24 EDT news646479381 Sophisticated analysis of tiny bubbles of ancient gas trapped in volcanic rocks, combined with new geophysical modeling, has cast new light on long-held assumptions about the deep Earth. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-afar-mantle-plume-insight-deep.html Earth Sciences Wed, 25 Sep 2024 10:31:04 EDT news646479061 A new analysis of satellite data finds that the record surge in atmospheric methane emissions from 2020 to 2022 was driven by increased inundation and water storage in wetlands, combined with a slight decrease in atmospheric hydroxide (OH). The results have implications for efforts to decrease atmospheric methane and mitigate its impact on climate change. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-atmospheric-methane-pandemic-due-primarily.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 24 Sep 2024 16:54:04 EDT news646415642 Sixteen years to the day that Hurricane Katrina devastated Louisiana, Ida slammed into the Gulf Coast state's seaport town of Port Fourchon as a Category 4 cyclone on Aug. 29, 2021, leaving a widespread path of destruction. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-high-impact-weather-events.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 24 Sep 2024 16:31:28 EDT news646414281 River floods are environmental hazards that can have devastating effects on human life, agriculture, and infrastructure. Hydrologic models are used to map flood hazards to better understand risk, dictate insurance costs, and inform land-use planning. However, new research being presented Wednesday at the Geological Society of America's GSA Connects 2024 meeting suggests that these models may be missing a key variable that could underestimate risk. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-channel-conveyance-current.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 24 Sep 2024 15:08:03 EDT news646409282 Northeast Greenland is home to the 79° N Glacier—the country's largest floating glacier tongue, but also one seriously threatened by global warming. Warm water from the Atlantic is melting it from below. However, experts from the Alfred Wegener Institute have now determined that the temperature of the water flowing into the glacier cavern declined from 2018 to 2021, even though the ocean has steadily warmed in the region over the past several decades. This could be due to temporarily changed atmospheric circulation patterns. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-atmospheric-blocking-ocean-driven-greenland.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 24 Sep 2024 14:20:38 EDT news646406426 A study, published in the journal Nature Communications by an international team of climate scientists and permafrost experts shows that, according to new climate computer model simulations, global warming will accelerate permafrost thawing and as a result lead to an abrupt intensification of wildfires in the Subarctic and Arctic regions of northern Canada and Siberia. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-climate-abrupt-intensification-northern-wildfires.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 24 Sep 2024 11:00:01 EDT news646385461 Over the next decades to centuries, will melting of the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS)—Earth's largest ice mass—cause global sea level to rise by five meters, two meters or less? https://phys.org/news/2024-09-antarctica-contribution-sea.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 24 Sep 2024 10:30:46 EDT news646392642 University of Adelaide researchers have developed a new theoretical model to predict the distances ocean waves can travel to break up sea ice. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-importance-climate-effect-sea-ice.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 24 Sep 2024 10:12:04 EDT news646391522 A mysterious type of iron-rich magma entombed within extinct volcanoes is likely abundant with rare earth elements and could offer a new way to source these in-demand metals, according to new research from The Australian National University (ANU) and the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-extinct-volcanoes-rich-source-rare.html Earth Sciences Tue, 24 Sep 2024 10:00:01 EDT news646385101 To know whether we are complying with emission treaties, all CO2 must be traceable. Incomplete bookkeeping recently sent scientists on a search in the Greenland Sea. Their research is published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-dissolved-inorganic-carbon-greenland-sea.html Earth Sciences Environment Mon, 23 Sep 2024 16:31:04 EDT news646327861 In deep Earth, rocks take up and release water all the time, and the effects can be wide reaching. Dehydration can cause rocks to crack and trigger earthquakes, and over geologic timescales, this water cycling can influence plate tectonics and move continents. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-high-pressure-reactions-nonporous-sponges.html Earth Sciences Mon, 23 Sep 2024 11:59:49 EDT news646311583 A probable crater stretching more than 370 miles, or 600 kilometers, across the heart of Australia could reshape our understanding of Earth's geological history. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-australian-crater-fresh-insight-earth.html Earth Sciences Mon, 23 Sep 2024 09:56:06 EDT news646304161 New research published Sept. 19 in Geophysical Research Letters shows that using data collected by deep ocean robots, called Deep Argo floats, combined with historical data from research vessels has increased confidence that parts of the global deep ocean are warming at a rate of .0036 to .0072°F (.002 to .004°C) each year. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-robots-steady-deep-ocean.html Earth Sciences Environment Mon, 23 Sep 2024 09:39:54 EDT news646303188