Phys.org: Earth science

An aluminum tab from a drinks can found encased in a new form of rock on the Cumbrian coastline has helped provide scientists with a shocking new insight into the impact of human activity on Earth's natural processes and materials.

Scientists are working to shed new light on an enduring climate mystery—one that, if solved, could help them make more accurate predictions about the planet's future.

A technique to cool the planet, in which particles are added to the atmosphere to reflect sunlight, would not require developing special aircraft but could be achieved using existing large planes, according to a new modeling study led by UCL (University College London) researchers.

New research involving Rutgers professors has revealed that expected, extreme changes in India's summer monsoon could drastically hamper the Bay of Bengal's ability to support a crucial element of the region's food supply: marine life.

A new study led by Jochen Knies from the iC3 Polar Research Hub has found worrying signs that climate change may be undermining the capacity of Arctic fjords to serve as effective carbon sinks. The findings suggest that the capacity of polar oceans to remove carbon from the atmosphere may be reduced as the world continues to heat up.

The Reykjanes Peninsula at Iceland's southwestern edge is one of the country's most populated regions, and it is also one of the most volcanically active. In 2024, sensing technology developed at Caltech was deployed in the region to study the motion of subsurface magma and its eruption into lava on the surface.

A new study reveals there was a time when massive icebergs, like the ones we see in Antarctica today, were drifting less than 90 miles off the U.K. coastline.

The amount of marine life off north-east Greenland could expand by more than a quarter, according to new research.

Could the seismic signal of an underground nuclear test explosion be "hidden" by the signal generated by a natural earthquake?

The resuspension of seafloor sediments—triggered by human activities such as bottom trawling as well as natural processes like storms and tides—can significantly increase the release of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. When these sediments are exposed to oxygen-rich seawater, large-scale oxidation of pyrite occurs.

The East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) plays a crucial role in shaping the regional climate and ecosystem. It is a key driver of seasonal precipitation patterns that sustain agricultural productivity and water resources in East Asia. Additionally, the EASM facilitates heat and moisture transport, modulating the regional energy balance and influencing large-scale atmospheric circulation.

Chinese scientists have discovered that fragile swamp forests in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region suddenly collapsed approximately 2,100 years ago (2.1 ka)—with human activity as the cause.

Rising temperatures could tip the scale in an underground battle that has raged for millennia. In the soils of Earth's wetlands, microbes are fighting to both produce and consume the powerful greenhouse gas methane. But if Earth gets too hot, a key way wetlands clamp down on methane could be at risk, according to a Smithsonian study published in Science Advances.

Over the past two decades, satellite-based planetary observations have recorded rapid mass loss of Patagonian glaciers, contributing approximately 0.07 mm per year to global sea-level rise. A study published in Nature Communications links this mass loss to a poleward shift of subtropical high-pressure systems. This large-scale atmospheric circulation change brings more warm air to Patagonia, thereby accelerating glacier melt.

South Africa is slowly lifting out of the water—by up to 2 millimeters per year depending on the region. It had been assumed up to now that this phenomenon was due to mantle flow in Earth's crust. However, a study carried out by the University of Bonn now provides another explanation: Droughts and the associated water loss are the main reason for this land uplift. The results have now been published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth.

Multiple climate "tipping points" are likely to be triggered if global policies stay on their current course, new research shows. Scientists assessed the risk of "tipping" in 16 different parts of the Earth system—ranging from the collapse of major ice sheets to the dieback of tropical coral reefs and vast forests.

Around 10,000 years ago, as the last Ice Age drew to a close, the drifting of the continent of North America, and spreading in the Atlantic Ocean, may have temporarily sped up—with a little help from melting glaciers, according to a new study from scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Drought-fueled wildfires in Southern California, a devastating hurricane in the southern Appalachian Mountains, and catastrophic floods in New England are among the most recent disasters to bring the increasingly astronomical costs of climate change into focus.

A research team has uncovered surprising evidence of cross-border pollution reaching the Arctic, originating from an Icelandic volcanic eruption. The researchers used a cutting-edge combination of satellite and ground-based monitoring to track sulfur dioxide emissions from the Sundhnukagigar volcano, which erupted in 2023. This toxic gas traveled over 2,000 kilometers to reach the Svalbard Islands, causing severe smog in the region.

Enhanced rock weathering (ERW) is a proposed method of carbon dioxide sequestration that involves spreading crushed silicate minerals on soils to drive chemical reactions that form carbonate minerals: Essentially, the idea is to boost the natural process of rock weathering, in which carbon is transferred from the atmosphere into rocks. But few large-scale field studies of ERW exist, making it difficult to determine the technique's practical feasibility and what factors might limit or enhance its success.