Phys.org: Earth science

The UK needs coordinated plans to stop a rush for air conditioning as temperatures rise, experts say.

To experience a volcanic eruption is to witness nature's raw power. If you would like to see one for yourself, Iceland is a great location for it. Since 2021, seven eruptions have taken place along the Reykjanes Peninsula, close to Reykjavík.

Soil liquefaction that results in infrastructure damage has long been a point of contention for urban planners and engineers. Accurately predicting the soil liquefaction risk of a region could help overcome this challenge.

Complex topography of glacier surfaces under accelerating global warming presents unprecedented challenges to traditional methods of glaciological observation due to intense fragmentation and differential melting.

As global temperatures continue to rise, India is grappling with increasingly severe heat waves. As early as April, many Indian cities, including New Delhi, the capital, have experienced record temperatures above 115 degrees Fahrenheit.

Ancient ocean temperatures are most commonly reconstructed by analyzing the ratio of different oxygen atoms in the calcium carbonate remains of fossils. However, this presents many challenges, including a combination of biological processes known as "vital effects" which are very noticeable in corals and can affect the data.

Recent decades have seen rapid warming in the Arctic, known as Arctic amplification, which has impacted the Arctic's cryosphere and ecosystems and influenced global weather and climate through changes in atmospheric circulation.

An international research team—including scientists from the University of East Anglia (UEA)—deployed an unmanned submersible beneath the Dotson Ice Shelf in West Antarctica. The underwater vehicle, "Ran," was programmed to dive into the cavity of the 350 meter thick ice shelf and scan the ice above it with an advanced sonar.

The Southern Ocean is wild and dynamic. It experiences Earth's strongest winds and largest waves. It is home to city-sized icebergs and the biggest ocean current on the globe, as well as tiny turbulent flows that fit inside a teacup.

It's time to take a thorough, more serious look at using geoengineering to protect the planet's icesheets, according to a group of scientists who have released a new report examining the issue. Glacial geoengineering is an emerging field of study that holds some hope for Earth's diminishing glaciers and ice sheets.

Space hurricanes are a recently discovered geomagnetic phenomenon in which plasma interacts with Earth's magnetosphere, the area of space dominated by Earth's magnetic field. Spiral arms of plasma, hundreds of kilometers long, stretch across the sky and turn clockwise around a calm "eye" in the center—forming aurorae shaped much like the hurricanes that occur closer to Earth's surface in the troposphere. Electrons from space rain down into Earth's upper atmosphere, where they have the potential to disrupt satellite communications.

Scientists from UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography have detected geochemical signatures of magma pooling and melting beneath the subsurface during the "Fagradalsfjall Fires," that began on Iceland's Reykjanes peninsula in 2021.

Scientific studies have filled the pages of AGU journals for more than a century. These articles reveal how the study of geophysics has evolved alongside technology and societal interests and they tell the story of our expanding knowledge of Earth and space science.

A new study has revealed that changes in the ocean floor impact currents, giving new insight into the deep-sea pathways of nutrients and pollutants.

Heavy rain and flooding in Brazil in November could tell forecasters whether December, January and February in Britain will be cold and dry or mild and wet.

Climate has an important role to play in viticulture (wine production) due to the impacts on grape harvest from variability in parameters such as temperature, precipitation and aridity. Warmer and drier climates with long growing seasons benefit grapevine growth, although beyond a tipping point, it can be damaging in climates akin to the Mediterranean. The Moselle Valley, spanning north-eastern France, south-western Germany, and eastern Luxembourg, has historically been and continues to be a major source of wine production in climatically-sensitive central and southern Europe.

Early in 2024, inside the Arctic Circle—thousands of miles from the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) campus in Monterey—a small team of students and faculty undertook a critical scientific research expedition, working with the Undersea Warfighting Development Center's Arctic Submarine Laboratory (ASL) at the biennial Operation Ice Camp.

Oceanic mesoscale eddies (OMEs) are swirling water structures that play a crucial role in ocean dynamics. These eddies transport heat, salt, nutrients, and other materials across the ocean, significantly influencing marine ecosystems and global climate patterns. Despite their importance, predicting the trajectories of these eddies remains challenging.

INPs are a rare subset of atmospheric aerosol that can initiate ice formation in clouds. There is a significant gap between scientists' ability to measure INPs and to predict their concentrations and variability in large-scale weather and climate models.

If the bedrock in the Alps no longer remains permanently frozen, rockfalls may occur more frequently. By measuring electrical resistivity in the ground, researchers can now better understand why this happens.