Phys.org: Earth science

Glaciers carved the deep valleys of Banff, eroded Ontario to deposit the fertile soils of the Prairies, and continue to change Earth's surface. But how fast do glaciers sculpt the landscape?

The SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) satellite captured the tsunami spawned by an 8.8 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on July 30, 11:25 a.m. local time. The satellite, a joint effort between NASA and the French space agency CNES (Centre National d'Études Spatiales), recorded the tsunami about 70 minutes after the earthquake struck.

On New Year's Day 1995, a monstrous 80-foot wave in the North Sea slammed into the Draupner oil platform. The wall of water crumpled steel railings and flung heavy equipment across the deck—but its biggest impact was what it left behind: hard data. It was the first time a rogue wave had ever been measured in the open ocean.

The Colorado River is in trouble: Not as much water flows into the river as people are entitled to take out of it. A new idea might change that, but complicated political and practical negotiations stand in the way.

Natural weathering processes are removing CO2 from the air in a wide range of environments across continents and oceans. Until recently, these "CO2 vacuum cleaners" were often studied separately, without properly examining their complex interactions.

The Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina—often described as one of the most stable glaciers in Patagonia—is retreating far more rapidly than previously thought, according to a paper in Communications Earth & Environment. The results show that over the last few years, the glacier has retreated by as much as 800 meters in some areas, and that it may collapse and retreat by several kilometers in the near future.

This summer, much of North China has endured widespread temperatures above 35°C. Even typically cooler, high-latitude summer retreats like Harbin in Northeast China—usually a refuge from the heat—saw temperatures soar past 35°C in late June and July. As climate change accelerates, extreme heat events will become increasingly frequent.

Critical mineral lithium—the lightest of all metals—had long eluded geologists by slipping through the cracks of traditional analysis.

Changes in water levels beneath Earth's surface caused by glacier snowmelt and rainfall could be responsible for triggering small but frequent earthquakes in New Zealand's central Southern Alps, according to new research led by The Australian National University (ANU), published in the journal Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems.

Experts are calling for a global effort to identify "positive tipping points" to accelerate the green transition—and have devised a method to find them.

As Greenland's ice retreats, it's fueling tiny ocean organisms. To test why, scientists turned to a computer model from JPL and MIT that's been called a laboratory in itself.

Analysis of ocean sediments has surfaced geochemical clues in line with the possibility that an encounter with a disintegrating comet 12,800 years ago in the Northern Hemisphere triggered rapid cooling of Earth's air and ocean. Christopher Moore of the University of South Carolina, U.S., and colleagues present these findings in the journal PLOS One on August 6, 2025.

Researchers are calling for a more reliable approach to understanding water-related hazards by explicitly accounting for uncertainty in their predictions, arguing this could improve how communities prepare for the risk of floods, droughts, and river-related erosion.

When an enormous 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck near Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, the impact reached far beyond its epicenter. In the passing hours, tsunami alerts were issued by several nations with coastlines along the Pacific Ocean's Ring of Fire, prompting evacuations and escalating emergency response efforts from Japan to Hawaii and along the U.S. West Coast. Due to a number of geological factors, this disaster did not result in significant damage or loss of life. That said, it served as a powerful reminder that in the face of rapidly moving natural hazards, the primary defense is time, and the systems that give us a chance to act before time runs out.

A recent study in Nature Geoscience offers important new insights into the hidden role of ancient groundwater beneath the ocean floor—and how it may have interacted with ice sheets and rising sea levels during past climate changes.

For a wide variety of earthquake scenarios in Alaska, an earthquake early warning (EEW) system could provide at least 10 seconds of warning time for hazardous shaking, according to a new report.

A previously unexploited source of information is now throwing new light on Earth's climate during the age of dinosaurs. Fossilized dinosaur teeth show that concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere during the Mesozoic Era, i.e., 252 to 66 million years ago, were far higher than they are today. This has been determined by researchers at the universities in Göttingen, Mainz, and Bochum following the analysis of oxygen isotopes in the dental enamel of dinosaur teeth.

Discover a vast, previously unknown world of microbial life that survives—and even thrives—for hundreds of millions of years in some of the planet's harshest environments.

A study published in the journal Tectonics has provided new insights into the forces that cause tectonic movements in Europe's most seismically active regions. Researchers used advanced satellite data to track land movements in Greece, western Turkey and the southern Balkan countries.

Periods of extreme heat often lead to increased exposure to ground-level ozone, in addition to other negative effects. This is dangerous for humans, the environment and agriculture. A study led by Forschungszentrum Jülich now provides surprising findings: With strong global warming, ozone pollution could decrease in some regions of the world.