Phys.org: Earth science

Most people can imagine why a shrinking Great Salt Lake would mean unhealthy dust storms for the Wasatch Front, or why refilling the lake through water conservation could reduce dust exposure. Now, there is a data-based modeling tool to visualize it, hosted at the University of Utah's Wilkes Center for Climate Science & Policy.

Reliable predictions of how the Earth's climate will respond as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels increase are based on climate models. These models, in turn, are based on data from past geological times in which the CO2 content in the Earth's atmosphere changed in a similar way to today and the near future. The data originate from measurable indicators (proxies), the interpretation of which is used to reconstruct the climate of the past.

While a wealth of nutrient export models exists, a knowledge gap persists regarding how climate and land-use changes specifically drive dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) export in subtropical catchments.

Scientists have discovered there is more to Antarctica than meets the eye. A new map of the landscape beneath the frozen continent's ice sheet has revealed a previously hidden world of mountains, deep canyons and rugged hills in unprecedented detail.

Research reveals when and why ancient tropical seas transitioned from oxygen oases to marine dead zones, providing clues to the long-term evolution of oceanic environments.

When Floridians talk about extreme weather, hurricanes dominate the conversation. Each season brings updates on storm tracks, cone predictions and wind speeds, all in the hopes of predicting the unpredictable. But a quieter, more deceptive threat is already reshaping the way people live and work in the Sunshine State: extreme heat.

Global change—a term that encompasses climate change and phenomena such as changes in land use or environmental pollution—is increasingly putting ecosystems around the world under pressure. Urban soils in particular are susceptible to stressors like heat, drought, road salt, nitrogen deposition, surfactants, and microplastics.

Multi-ignition wildfires are not overly common. But when individual fires do converge, the consequences can be catastrophic. The largest fire on record in California, the 2020 August Complex fire, grew from the coalescence of 10 separate ignitions.

By tracking swarms of very small earthquakes, seismologists are getting a new picture of the complex region where the San Andreas fault meets the Cascadia subduction zone, an area that could give rise to devastating major earthquakes.

Environmental phenomena and their consequences can disrupt social structures and destabilize political systems. An interdisciplinary research team demonstrated this using the example of the late Tang dynasty in medieval China.

Environmental research in the tropics is heavily skewed, according to a comprehensive study led by Umeå University. Humid lowland forest ecosystems receive a disproportionate amount of attention, while colder and drier regions that are more affected by climate change are severely underrepresented.

Understanding how water moves through the Earth system is fundamental to predicting climate impacts and ensuring sustainable water management. Yet despite decades of research, uncertainties persist regarding how global precipitation is partitioned into evapotranspiration and river flow—the two dominant pathways by which water returns from land to the atmosphere and oceans.

Under the Great Salt Lake playa lies a potentially vast reservoir of pressurized freshwater that has accumulated over thousands of years from mountain-derived snowmelt, according to new research from University of Utah geoscientists. This groundwater occupies the pore spaces in sediments that fill the basin west of the Wasatch Mountains and below a 30-foot-thick salty layer.

For the first time, a study by researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego integrates climate-related damages to the ocean into the social cost of carbon—a measure of economic harm caused by greenhouse gas emissions.

As climate change drives more frequent and severe wildfires across boreal forests in Alaska and northwestern Canada, scientists are asking a critical question: Will these ecosystems continue to store carbon or become a growing source of carbon emissions?

Sometimes to truly study something up close, you have to take a step back. That's what Andrea Donnellan does. An expert in Earth sciences and seismology, she gets much of her data from a bird's-eye view, studying the planet's surface from the air and space, using the data to make discoveries and deepen understanding about earthquakes and other geological processes.

The Indonesian Throughflow carries both warm water and fresh water from the Pacific into the Indian Ocean. As the only low-latitude current that connects the two bodies of water, it plays a key role in ocean circulation and sea surface temperature worldwide.

How much fresh water is in the United States? It's a tough question, since most of the water is underground, accessible at varying depths. In previous decades, it's been answered indirectly from data on rainfall and evaporation. Knowing how much groundwater is available at specific locations is critical to meeting the challenges of water scarcity and contamination.

The storing of the very first heritage cores in Antarctica marks a pivotal moment for the Ice Memory project launched in 2015 by CNRS, IRD, the University of Grenoble-Alpes (France), CNR, Ca' Foscari University of Venice (Italy) and the Paul Scherrer Institute (Switzerland).

In the icy reaches of the Svalbard archipelago, a quiet revolution in marine restoration is underway. Researchers are building a digital twin of the region—an interactive, data-rich simulation designed to help researchers and restoration teams understand how climate change is affecting Arctic coastlines and how its impacts might be reduced.