Phys.org: Earth science

Climate change could push UK rivers to dangerous extremes and bring more frequent rapid swings between wet and dry conditions—a phenomenon known as hydroclimatic whiplash—according to research led by the University of East Anglia (UEA). Researchers analyzed almost 700 river catchments across the UK to project how river flows may change at 2° C and 4° C of global warming. The results reveal stark regional contrasts and growing challenges for communities and water managers trying to plan for flood and drought risk, particularly in areas that will increasingly experience both.

Marine heat waves (MHWs) are events characterized by prolonged warm coastal and ocean conditions with wide-ranging impacts on ecosystem health and associated industries. While research on MHWs has historically relied on surface-water data from satellite observations and buoy records, new research from the Batten School of Coastal & Marine Sciences & VIMS highlights the need to—quite literally—go deeper.

Hot and dry conditions have become synonymous with the risk of extreme wildfires. But a new paper argues that such conditions are not, by themselves, sufficient for blazes, and most warm years do not result in the burning of exceptionally large areas.

An international team of researchers has found plants in the tropics absorb much less carbon dioxide than previous modeling had suggested, which has implications for ecosystem management.

Snowfall deep inside East Antarctica has increased in recent decades, and distant ocean temperature changes may be partly responsible. Using long-term climate data and observations from Dome Fuji station, researchers found that the increase in snowfall is strongly linked to atmospheric blocking patterns that carry moist air into inland Antarctica. These patterns are, in turn, influenced by sea surface temperature changes in the subtropical South Atlantic Ocean—highlighting important climate connections across vast distances.

A chain of remote islands and underwater volcanoes between Alaska and Kamchatka has revealed a much older chapter in Earth's tectonic history than previously known. Along the Aleutian Arc, the Pacific Plate dives beneath the North American Plate, creating one of the most active and important plate boundaries on Earth. An international research team has now shown that this subduction zone began at least 56 million years ago, significantly earlier than previous models had assumed. The findings, published in Nature Communications, shed new light on a major reorganization of plate motions and may also help better understand ancient global climate change.

Most of the earthquakes we hear about are due to tectonic plates colliding or sliding past each other near plate boundaries. Yet researchers have detected some enigmatic earthquakes happening inside the more stable interiors of plates. Intermediate-depth earthquakes (IDEs), which occur around 70–300 kilometers (43–186 miles) below the surface, are especially puzzling because rocks at those depths are hot enough to flow more fluidly.

Communities around the world have adapted to live on the year-round frozen soil of frigid environments, such as in the Arctic. However, rising temperatures have introduced a new challenge: What happens when the ground under houses and roads begins to melt?

In a strong El Niño winter, normally dry regions can suddenly drown in rain. NASA notes that "typically dry regions can experience nearly two times as much rain during a strong El Niño." Indeed, the blockbuster El Niños of 1982–83 and 1997–98 unleashed record-breaking California storms and unusually mild Northeast winters. These far-reaching effects—atmospheric "teleconnections" linking the tropics to North America—arise because Pacific warming steers the jet stream south and east.

While Reno families were celebrating the 1997 New Year, the Truckee River was surging into the city's downtown streets. A rainstorm was falling on the Sierra Nevada's deep snowpack, melting it rapidly and creating a hazardous situation for downstream communities.

Traditional global climate models were like early digital cameras—they had only about 10,000 pixels to cover the entire planet. At that low resolution, big storm systems looked like blurry blobs. You couldn't see their true shape, how long they lasted or where they dumped the heaviest rain.

The Ontong Java Plateau in the western Pacific Ocean is the largest oceanic plateau on Earth, and its formation mechanism has not been well understood.

Over 40,000 seamounts—undersea mountains that don't breach the ocean's surface—are scattered across the ocean floor. Some form linear chains, while others occur as dispersed, isolated features that are not part of well-defined volcanic chains.

The warm Gulf Stream is maintained by coldness. The Barents Sea is a cooling machine. To predict how ocean currents in the Atlantic Ocean may develop, one needs to know what drives them. The hunt for driving forces has led researchers to follow the warm water from the Gulf Stream as far north as it gets.

Sedimentary basins—depressions in Earth's crust caused by tectonic activity—tend to be flat and are favored places to build cities. But during earthquakes, they can become natural resonance chambers.

Researchers have developed a new approach using data from NASA's Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite to observe the timing and progression of fall colors across landscapes.

The Arctic and northern high latitudes are warming about 2–4 times faster than the global average, allowing ancient permafrost to thaw and release stored carbon. These permafrost soils currently store roughly one-third of the world's organic soil carbon, much of which has remained frozen for thousands of years. As the soils thaw, organic matter from dead plants and animals within them starts to decompose, and greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, are released.

Changes in wind patterns play the leading role in influencing often devastating tropical rainfall changes, rather than simply the warming atmosphere holding more moisture, according to new research.

Planting trees is widely promoted as a natural solution to climate change. But a new study led by researchers from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences finds that the hydrological consequences of reforestation depend critically on how much the world warms.

Climate change is altering where and when rocks are most likely to fracture across Spain, according to new research that suggests warming temperatures are redistributing a key process responsible for breaking down mountain landscapes.