Phys.org: Earth science

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The latest news on earth sciences and the environment
Updated: 3 hours 20 min ago

Climate change driving major algae surge in Canada's lakes, study finds

Thu, 07/31/2025 - 14:30
Algal growth is accelerating in lakes across Canada, including those far from human development, and a new study shows that climate change is the primary driver.

Migrating zooplankton play key role in ocean carbon transport and storage

Thu, 07/31/2025 - 12:56
Every day, as the sun sets, billions of small animals make their way from the depths of the ocean to the surface to feed. As the next day begins, these zooplankton swim back down. It's the largest synchronous migration on the planet, responsible for carrying vast amounts of carbon from the ocean surface to the deep.

Weather-tracking advances are revealing astonishing extremes of lightning

Thu, 07/31/2025 - 12:00
It was a single lightning flash that streaked across the Great Plains for 515 miles, from eastern Texas nearly all the way to Kansas City, setting a new world record.

NASA's PACE enables new method for monitoring global plant health

Thu, 07/31/2025 - 10:20
A new study using data collected by NASA's Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite established a novel method to determine how productive plants are worldwide. The findings were published in IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters.

Gulf of Maine sees rising pH, defying expectations of increasing ocean acidity

Wed, 07/30/2025 - 20:09
The Gulf of Maine—home to commercial fisheries for oysters, clams and mussels—has unexpectedly avoided an increase in seawater acidity, helping to preserve the health of its fisheries.

Why the Pacific tsunami was smaller than expected: A geologist explains

Wed, 07/30/2025 - 18:33
The earthquake near the east coast of the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia on July 30, 2025 generated tsunami waves that have reached Hawaii and coastal areas of the US mainland. The earthquake's magnitude of 8.8 is significant, potentially making it one of the largest quakes ever recorded.

Satellite data reveal African grasslands' carbon uptake rises with rainfall, unlike forests and savannas

Wed, 07/30/2025 - 15:49
Africa is a source of uncertainty in carbon cycle calculations. By some estimates, the continent's landscapes emit 2.1 billion tons more carbon dioxide than they take up each year—about equal to 1.5 times the annual emissions from coal-fired power plants. But other estimates are almost the complete opposite, suggesting that the continent's copious plant matter takes up 2.0 billion more tons of carbon dioxide per year than it releases.

An underwater observatory keeping the pulse of the Southern Ocean for nearly 30 years yields fresh results

Wed, 07/30/2025 - 15:10
In a world affected by climate change, the Southern Ocean plays an outsized role. It absorbs up to 40% of the human-caused emissions taken up by the oceans while also being home to some of the world's most vulnerable ecosystems.

Carbon 'offsets' aren't working: Researchers offer a 'roadmap' to improve nature-based climate solutions

Wed, 07/30/2025 - 15:00
A lot of the climate-altering carbon pollution humans release into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels gets drawn into the Earth's oceans and landscapes through natural processes, mostly through photosynthesis, as plants turn atmospheric carbon dioxide into biomass.

Rainy tropics could face unprecedented droughts as an Atlantic current slows

Wed, 07/30/2025 - 15:00
Some of the rainiest places on Earth could see their annual precipitation nearly halved if climate change continues to alter the way ocean water moves around the globe.

Kamchatka earthquake is among top 10 strongest ever recorded. Here's what they have in common

Wed, 07/30/2025 - 14:36
Today at about 11:30am local time, a magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck off the coast of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula in the country's far east.

High-resolution satellite remote sensing reveals underestimated methane emissions from global landfills

Wed, 07/30/2025 - 13:24
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas with a much stronger short-term effect on warming than carbon dioxide. Over the near-term (20 years), 1 ton of methane has the warming effect of up to 84 tons of carbon dioxide, while over a hundred years, 1 ton of methane has the warming effect of about 28 tons of carbon dioxide. For this reason, controlling methane emissions is a high priority in limiting warming.

Coastal communities vary widely in climate hazard acknowledgment, study shows

Wed, 07/30/2025 - 13:20
Recent climate-related crises—from severe storms and flooding to extreme heat—have raised new questions about how local governments communicate the risk of these crises and what they are doing to keep their citizens safe. To better understand what this communication looks like at local level, and the factors that may be shaping it, researchers from Drexel University analyzed climate resilience planning information available on the public-facing websites of 24 coastal communities in New Jersey that are contending with the effects of sea level rise.

US, India launch powerful Earth-monitoring satellite

Wed, 07/30/2025 - 09:10
A formidable new radar satellite jointly developed by the United States and India launched Wednesday, designed to track subtle changes in Earth's land and ice surfaces and help predict both natural and human-caused hazards.

Why a huge hidden flood in 2014 burst through the Greenland ice sheet surface

Wed, 07/30/2025 - 09:00
A huge flood triggered by the rapid draining of a lake beneath the Greenland ice sheet occurred with such force that it fractured the ice above and burst out across its surface.

Predictive tools help communities respond quicker to wildfires and build resilience throughout the year

Wed, 07/30/2025 - 08:28
Wildfire season is no longer something that comes and goes; it's becoming a year-round concern. In BC, wildfires can shape the entire year, and we want to know what's coming, what's at risk and how to prepare.

Deep heat beneath US traced to ancient rift with Greenland

Tue, 07/29/2025 - 23:00
A large region of unusually hot rock deep beneath the Appalachian Mountains in the United States could be linked to Greenland and North America splitting apart 80 million years ago, according to new research led by the University of Southampton.

New remote-sensing system maps Antarctica's unique vegetation in fine detail

Tue, 07/29/2025 - 17:40
QUT researchers have developed an advanced remote sensing method for accurately detecting and mapping Antarctica's delicate moss and lichen growth, the mainstays of the continent's fragile ecosystems. The research team also developed a way to survey Antarctica's vegetation that is noninvasive and will enable accurate surveys more quickly and cheaply than before. The paper is published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Machine learning improves accuracy of climate models—particularly for compound extreme events

Tue, 07/29/2025 - 15:02
Researchers have devised a new machine learning method to improve large-scale climate model projections and demonstrated that the new tool makes the models more accurate at both the global and regional level. This advance should provide policymakers with improved climate projections that can be used to inform policy and planning decisions.

Warmer with a chance of ice: Hailstorms could hit Australian cities harder

Tue, 07/29/2025 - 13:34
New research from UNSW shows climate change could cause hailstorms to get worse in some of Australia's most densely populated cities.

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