Phys.org: Earth science

Green clay tennis courts are able to absorb massive amounts of carbon dioxide via enhanced rock weathering, according to a new study in Applied Geochemistry. Enhanced rock weathering—the process of using silicate rocks like basalt to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through the rocks' chemical reaction with rainfall—has emerged in recent years as a promising method of reducing carbon emissions. Green clay tennis courts in the US are made of metabasalt, a type of basalt with similar properties allowing for carbon sequestration.

Arctic rivers wind through remote tundra and boreal forests, freezing solid in winter and surging each spring with snowmelt, eventually emptying into the ocean. Runoff—water that does not soak into the ground but instead flows over the land surface—further increases the volume of freshwater entering the sea.

The soil beneath our feet is a huge carbon bank storing up to approximately three times more carbon than the entire atmosphere. That makes it a significant player in the future of our climate. If even a small fraction of the carbon escapes into the air as carbon dioxide, it could accelerate planetary heating. But what determines whether the carbon stays in the ground or escapes? According to new research published in the journal Nature Climate Change, water is the deciding factor. The wetter the soil, the more carbon stays in the ground.

In Science of The Total Environment, researchers demonstrate the broad distribution of particulate thiols in the western North Pacific and show that their main source is marine phytoplankton. The analysis indicates that differences in thiol concentrations between ocean areas are significantly influenced by water mass properties, phytoplankton composition, and environmental stress.

Alaska's glaciers respond to climate change by melting for three additional weeks with every 1 degree Celsius increase in the average summer temperature, data from satellite-mounted radars show.

For half the world's population, the water in their drinking glasses comes from below them. Groundwater also supplies 40% of global irrigation projects. Alarmingly, more than a third of the planet's aquifers, or groundwater basins, are dropping. Declining water tables leave entire regions vulnerable to drought, land subsidence or seawater intrusion while damaging ecosystems and reducing water access. Properly securing this resource is a matter of social, humanitarian and environmental security.

Every time we do a load of laundry, tiny fibers of polyester escape from our clothes and slip down the drain. These microfibers, so small they can be invisible to the naked eye, are among the most common forms of microplastic in the ocean. Yet, new research published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans shows that most of them may not make it that far.

A potentially huge underground reservoir of freshwater beneath the Great Salt Lake is coming into sharper focus with a new study that used airborne electromagnetic (AEM) surveys to X-ray geologic structures under Farmington Bay and Antelope Island off the lake's southeastern shore.

New research reveals that "foundation models" trained on vast, general time-series data may be able to forecast river flows accurately, even in regions with little or no local hydrological records. The approach could improve flood warnings, drought planning and water-resource management in parts of the world where monitoring data is limited.

Plowing, or tilling, is an age-old agricultural practice that readies the soil for planting by turning over the top layer to expose fresh earth. The method—intended to improve water and nutrient circulation—remains popular today, but concerns about soil degradation have prompted some to return to regenerative methods that disturb the soil less.

The history of Earth is written on the great tablets of tectonic plates. The motions of plates shaped land masses, formed oceans, and created the varied climates and habitats that set the stage for evolution and the diversity of life. But this grand drama begins with a deep mystery: just when did the continental and oceanic plates begin to drift? Did the lithosphere begin to move soon after the formation of Earth 4.5 billion years ago or only in the last billion years?

Swedish old-growth forests store 83% more carbon than managed forests, according to a new study from Lund University. The difference is substantially larger than previous estimates and is mainly due to large carbon stocks in the soil.

Scientists have long sought to explain a key mismatch in Earth's early history: oxygen-producing photosynthesis evolved hundreds of millions of years before atmospheric oxygen began to rise during the Great Oxidation Event. This delay has been linked to limited phosphorus—a nutrient essential to life—but the specific processes controlling phosphorus availability in the iron-rich oceans of Archean Earth (approximately 3.2–2.5 billion years ago) remained unclear.

Idaho's Silver Valley has produced about 1.2 billion ounces of silver since the late 1800s, enough to cast a solid cube roughly as tall as a five-story building, along with huge amounts of lead and zinc. Now a new study led by Washington State University researchers helps explain how mineral deposits in the Silver Valley and other mineralized parts of the Belt Supergroup began to form more than 1.2 billion years ago. The Belt Supergroup is a massive stack of rocks stretching across eastern Washington, Idaho, and Montana that also hosts the Idaho Cobalt Belt, the most significantly mineralized cobalt district in the United States.

New analyses of ancient ice from Antarctica and the air contained inside it are extending the history of Earth's climate records and expanding researchers' understanding of how the planet has changed over the last 3 million years.

For modern residents of the Levant, the "Red Sea Trough" usually brings a brief, dusty transition between seasons. But 127,000 years ago, this same weather pattern may have been the literal key to human history. A new study, led by Ph.D. student Efraim Bril, Prof. Adi Torfstein and Dr. Assaf Hochman from the Institute of Earth Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and published in Climate of the Past, reveals that during the Last Interglacial (LIG) peak, the Levant wasn't just a dry bridge between continents, it was dynamic with more relatively wet conditions fueled by intense, localized rain. This shift in ancient weather likely provided the water sources necessary for early humans to successfully migrate "out of Africa."

A severe drought, powerful Santa Ana winds and a not-fully-extinguished brushfire combined to create the most destructive wildfire in the history of Los Angeles in early 2025. The Palisades Fire, which fully ignited on Jan. 7, destroyed Los Angeles' Pacific Palisades neighborhood, killing 12 people and burning 6,800 homes and buildings.

Hydrological models represent water movement in natural systems, and they are important for water resource planning and management. But the models depend on reliable input data for weather factors, and precipitation can be very difficult to measure and represent accurately. A recent study in Environmental Modelling & Software by an international research team describes a novel method to better represent precipitation uncertainty in hydrological models, thereby improving their performance.

Tides not only affect regions along the coast, their periodic fluctuations are carried upstream inland through coastal rivers. River sections particularly affected by these tidal pulses are exposed to an increased risk of flooding. It is therefore important to localize these regions, as well as the extent of the river tide. However, until now, a global and accurate overview has not yet been established.

An international team led by the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH) has just published a paper in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews reconstructing episodes of highstands of the Black Sea during the last glacial period, based on the analysis of coastal terraces in the eastern Sinop Peninsula (Turkey). These findings reveal alternating connections of the Black Sea with the Mediterranean and the Caspian Sea, refining the history of its highstands during the Late Pleistocene.