Phys.org: Earth science

Rivers join downstream, flow downhill, and eventually meet an ocean or terminal lake: These are fundamental rules of how waterways and basins are supposed to work. But rules are made to be broken. In the journal Water Resources Research, Sowby and Siegel lay out nine rivers and lakes in the Americas that defy hydrologic expectations.

A study of tree rings in the Gaspesie's Sainte-Anne River area reveals that snowpacks have been declining noticeably in the region's mountains for nearly nine decades. The researchers say the phenomenon is directly linked to global warming.

New projections by the UNSW Institute for Climate Risk & Response (ICRR) reveal a 4°C rise in global temperatures would cut world GDP by around 40% by 2100—a stark increase from previous estimates of around 11%.

A combination of water management practices has contributed to notable groundwater gains in Central Arizona despite the region dealing with long-term water stress, according to a study led by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and collaborators in Arizona and Colorado.

Landslides pose a significant threat to people and the environment worldwide. Researchers from the Leibniz Center for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), together with international partners, have developed a new framework that significantly improves landslide prediction using machine learning methods.

Recent "unprecedented" floods are not exceptional if we look further into the past, new research shows.

In the first study to consider the long-term evolution of the rivers that flow beneath glaciers, researchers have new insights into the future of Antarctica's melting ice that may change the way climate scientists predict the effects of a warming planet.

A University of Otago—Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka-led study is developing innovative methods to accurately predict how ice sheets and glaciers are deforming and moving.

Plate temperature and water release can explain the occurrence of different types of earthquakes in Guerrera, Mexico. A Kobe University simulation study has also shown that the shape of the Cocos Plate is responsible for a gap where earthquakes haven't occurred for more than a century. The results are important for accurate earthquake prediction models in the region.

A pair of marine scientists at the University of Antwerp, in Belgium, working with a colleague from the University of Otago, in New Zealand, have found that simulations they created showed that trawling and dredging impact the processes behind natural ocean alkalinity production.

One of the ocean currents in the Arctic Ocean is at risk of disappearing this century because of climate change, according to a new joint study from the University of Gothenburg and the German Alfred Wegener Institute. As a result, the North Atlantic could be flooded with freshwater, which would weaken the global ocean circulation.

Scientists know that streams and rivers can contribute significant quantities of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. One way these bodies of water come to contain greenhouse gases is via groundwater, which picks up carbon and nitrogen as it seeps and flows through rock and sediment near rivers.

Devastating floods reshaped southern Brazil's landscape in May 2024. Rio Grande do Sul—the fifth most populous state in Brazil—was hit with unprecedented rainfall, affecting 2.3 million people. A new study led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) published in Geophysical Research Letters uses satellite data to help uncover what caused the deluges and examine how it impacted some of the state's most vulnerable residents.

Experts say that the devastating earthquake in Myanmar on Friday was likely the strongest to hit the country in decades, with disaster modeling suggesting thousands could be dead.

Hydroacoustic signals captured by the world's international nuclear monitoring system suggest an underwater landslide may have broken communications cables and disrupted internet traffic in west African countries for several weeks in March 2024.

Early Friday, a major 7.7 magnitude earthquake that originated near Mandalay, Myanmar, shook the Earth as far as Bangkok, about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) away.

A new study reveals that the devastating 2023 flood in Derna, Libya, was not merely the result of extreme rainfall but was drastically intensified by a major design shortcoming and its resulting collapse of two embankment dams.

El Niño, a climate phenomenon marked by warming sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, is known to trigger extreme weather events worldwide, from droughts and floods to disruptions in agriculture and ecosystems. Despite its global impact, the mechanisms behind El Niño remain complex and not fully understood, making accurate predictions challenging.

Climate science has correctly predicted many aspects of the climate system and its response to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. Recently, discrepancies between the real world and our expectations of regional climate changes have emerged, as have disruptive new computational approaches.

A new method based on optical interferometry, to monitor structural damage to buildings hit by earthquakes in real time, is the outcome of the Foresight research project, led by the Politecnico di Milano and carried out together with INRiM—the National Metrology Institute of Italy and INGV—the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology.