Phys.org: Earth science

New research from Adelaide University has revealed that geological processes dating back billions of years are critical to locating the rare earth elements needed for modern technologies and the global clean energy transition. Published in Science Advances, the study shows a strong global link between ancient subduction zones—where tectonic plates collide—and the formation of rare earth element (REE) deposits and carbonatites, a type of hot molten rock called magma, known to host these valuable resources.

A new study published in Science Advances reveals that sinking land—not just rising oceans alone—will be the main cause of future coastal flooding along Indonesia's densely populated Java Island, putting millions at risk sooner than expected.

Scientists at The University of Manchester have developed a new way to measure how traffic contributes to rising urban temperatures, revealing that everyday vehicle use can play a measurable role in making cities warmer. The researchers created a new physics-based module that allows heat produced by urban traffic to be represented directly within the Community Earth System Model (CESM)—one of the world's most widely used global climate models for predicting how Earth's climate behaves.

Take a tour through volcanic history on the edge of the Sierra Nevada near Mammoth Lakes, California. Between the tall granite peaks to the west and the Basin and Range province to the east, overlapping volcanic complexes imprint the landscape with a collection of craters, cones, and calderas.

Surface volatiles—chemical substances that easily become gases or fluids at relatively low temperatures and pressures—are transported into Earth through subduction zones, with some being transported into the deep mantle and others to shallower depths. According to conventional models, halogens such as fluorine (F) and chlorine (Cl) are largely released at shallow depths when hydrous minerals break down, making it difficult for them to reach the deep mantle. However, a new study has identified high-density saline inclusions in deep diamonds and fluorine enrichment in mantle minerals, indicating that some halogens survive transport to great depths.

In their current state, climate policies around the world could leave a significant chunk of the global population exposed to simultaneous extreme heat and drought over five times more often by the end of this century than during the mid-to-late 20th century.

In Puerto Rico, drought doesn't always arrive slowly. Sometimes, it appears in days. That speed can leave producers scrambling, reservoirs dropping, and communities facing water restrictions before they can react. In a place often associated with heavy rain and hurricanes, drought is often overlooked, but very much a reality. New research from Virginia Tech is helping explain why.

It transports far more than 100 times as much water as all of the Earth's rivers combined: The Antarctic Circumpolar Current rushes around the southern continent unhindered by land masses and is therefore a fundamental component of the climate system. In a recent study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a research team led by the Alfred Wegener Institute describes how and when this mighty ring current developed in Earth's history.

Scientists have found a new way to detect subtle chemical signatures in seawater, revealing previously invisible details about the ocean's chemistry from data continuously collected by thousands of autonomous robotic floats drifting across the seas.

Mangrove forests are natural wonders that protect coastal areas, particularly in tropical and subtropical regions. They are able to dissipate wave energy and limit flooding, which can even mitigate tsunamis and coastal inundations during tropical cyclones. For this reason, mangroves are attracting attention as Nature-based Solutions, or NbS: natural infrastructure with the potential to enhance coastal resilience in an environmentally friendly way.

Researchers have created the first map of a network of subglacial lakes in the Canadian Arctic showing 33 bodies of water under glaciers. Using a decade of ArcticDEM satellite data of Earth's surface height, a team of researchers including the University of Waterloo has developed a method that allowed them to track the draining and filling of active subglacial lakes in unprecedented detail. The team's paper is published in The Cryosphere.

Slow roiling convection currents deep within Earth's mantle, which are associated with the movements of tectonic plates, also deform the material of the mantle itself. Now, a new study in The Seismic Record confirms that much of this deformation in the lowest level of the mantle occurs where researchers think there may be deeply subducted tectonic slabs.

Some newly published findings from an Idaho State University professor and his colleagues point out how changes to currents an ocean away can impact climates on the other side of the globe. The new paper published in Nature Communications explains how Bruce Finney, professor in the departments of biological sciences and geosciences at ISU, and his collaborators, Lesleigh Anderson, research geologist with the United States Geological Survey, and W. Brad Baxter, Idaho State alum, came to understand how shifts in currents in the Atlantic Ocean led the climate of Alaska to cool, especially in winter, roughly 13,000 years ago.

Researchers at the Institute of Water and Environmental Engineering (IIAMA) at the Universitat Politècnica de València have developed an advanced system for seasonal forecasting of meteorological droughts that enables these events to be predicted up to six months in advance, providing a key tool for water management and early warning in semi-arid regions, such as the Júcar river basin.

In the aftermath of the latest bout of extreme rainfall across New Zealand's upper North Island, there were some familiar scenes.

A growing network of meltwater lakes at the edge of the Greenland ice sheet is accelerating the flow of major glaciers, potentially increasing the pace of global sea-level rise. Warmer air and sea temperatures have led to the loss of around 264 gigatons of ice every year in Greenland since 2002, causing sea levels to rise by 0.8 millimeters annually. But a new study by the University of Leeds examining glacier behavior across the entire ice sheet has highlighted a lesser-known feature that is amplifying this mass loss—the freshwater lakes forming as the ice retreats.

Rivers are rarely the calm, orderly streams we imagine on maps. Over time, their winding paths—called meanders—shift, bend, and occasionally snap off in sudden "cutoff" events that shorten loops and reshape the landscape. While scientists have long suspected that such cutoffs inject a dose of unpredictability into river evolution, a new study published in Communications Earth & Environment demonstrates that these abrupt events are, by themselves, enough to produce chaos in river channels.

Earth's "gold kitchen" lies deep beneath the seafloor. Island arcs, whose volcanoes form above subduction zones where one oceanic plate sinks beneath another, are often particularly rich in gold. The reasons for this have long been debated.

Researchers have uncovered new evidence that short-lived spikes in ocean phosphorus may have played a major role in two of the most severe marine extinctions in Earth's history. Dr. Matthew Dodd from The University of Western Australia's School of Earth and Oceans is lead author of the study published in Nature Communications, which sheds new light on how nutrient disruption can destabilize life, climate, and ocean chemistry on a global scale.

The Syrian civil war, which began in 2011, caused widespread population displacement and infrastructure damage. However, it has also led to an unintended environmental effect with notable changes in the country's landscape, according to a new study published in Geophysical Research Letters. Among the concerns are the complex impacts of wars on water resources. These repercussions can be direct, such as wastewater pollution and destruction of water infrastructure, or indirect, including increased deforestation, soil erosion, and abrupt cropland losses.