Phys.org: Earth science

Antarctic krill swimming between the Southern Ocean's surface and seafloor depths, make a "surprisingly small" contribution to the carbon export "highway" compared to their fast-sinking feces, according to research published in Science.

A study led by The University of Western Australia has revealed new insights into the landscape profile of the Avon River Critical Zone Observatory in Western Australia.

A large international team of researchers with a wide variety of backgrounds has found evidence that carbon storage below seaweed farms can accumulate as much carbon as some Blue Carbon habitats. In their study published in Nature Climate Change, the group analyzed data from multiple seaweed farms around the globe.

Shallow coastal waters are hotspots for methane emissions, releasing significant amounts of this potent greenhouse gas into the atmosphere and contributing to global warming. New research highlights how tides, seasons, and ocean currents strongly influence methane emissions and how tiny microorganisms, called methanotrophs, help reduce their impact. These findings are part of a dissertation by NIOZ Ph.D. candidate Tim de Groot, which he will defend on January 31, 2025 at Utrecht University.

While firefighters work to extinguish the Los Angeles-area wildfires, city officials and emergency managers are also worried about what could come next.

By refining an artificial intelligence approach to predicting earthquakes in the laboratory, or labquakes, engineers at Penn State are paving the way to one day help forecast natural earthquakes.

Legend has it that a strange orb sometimes seen hovering over the railroad tracks in the remote area around Summerville, South Carolina, is a lantern borne by a ghost whose husband lost his head in a train accident.

The magnitude 7.9 Bonin Islands earthquake sequence in May 2015, which ruptured deep within the earth near the base of the upper mantle, did not include an aftershock that extended to record depths into the lower mantle, according to a study appearing in The Seismic Record.

A new study shows biochar to be far more effective at long-term carbon storage than previously thought. The study reveals critical flaws in the models used by the IPCC and European climate policymakers.

Scientists at the University of Lausanne (UNIL) have used AI to massively speed up computer calculations and simulate the last ice cover in the Alps. Much more in line with field observations, the new results show that the ice was thinner than in previous models. This innovative method opens the door to countless new simulations and predictions linked to climate upheavals. The research is published in Nature Communications.

When glaciers and ice sheets melt, they can destabilize slopes and reactivate faults, which in turn can trigger landslides and reshape the surface of Earth over long periods of time. Researchers can monitor some locations in real time to determine which combinations of factors lead to landslides, but understanding what triggered landslides thousands of years ago is more difficult.

Deeply hidden in Earth's mantle there are two huge "islands" the size of a continent. New research from Utrecht University shows that these regions are not only hotter than the surrounding graveyard of cold sunken tectonic plates, but also that they must be ancient: at least half a billion years old, perhaps even older.

The Great Salt Lake, the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere, reached historic low levels in 2022, raising economic, ecological and public health concerns for Utah.

Iron is one of the main elements found in the Earth's inner core, which is characterized by extremely high temperatures and pressures. Determining how iron behaves in these extreme conditions could thus help to advance the current understanding of our home planet's structure and geodynamics.

Land clearing for nickel mines is causing a more severe threat to the climate than initially thought, a study led by a University of Queensland researcher has found.

A study provides compelling new evidence that a colossal "megaflood" refilled the Mediterranean Sea, ending a period during which the Mediterranean was a vast expanse of salt flats. The research suggests the Zanclean Megaflood ended the Messinian Salinity Crisis, which lasted between 5.97 and 5.33 million years ago.

A study led by researchers at The University of Manchester has exposed significant gaps in global research on transboundary rivers, revealing that the water needs of people in the Global South are being disproportionately overlooked.

After millennia as a carbon deep-freezer for the planet, regional hotspots and increasingly frequent wildfires in the northern latitudes have nearly canceled out that critical storage capacity in the permafrost region, according to a study published in Nature Climate Change.

The Dutch TROPOMI space instrument creates daily global maps of carbon monoxide (CO) in the atmosphere. Researchers from SRON and TNO have now measured CO emissions over a full year from the 21 largest European steel plants. The preprint is available on EGUsphere.

Imagine a glacier. Are you thinking "glittering snow" or "plastic pollution?" A new study underscores the pervasive nature of plastic pollution, even in such remote and apparently pristine areas.