Phys.org: Earth science

As global temperatures rise, thermal expansion of oceans and melting ice sheets are driving up sea levels worldwide. In many coastal areas, land subsidence—caused by groundwater extraction and rapid urbanization—further exacerbates flood risks. However, a new study reveals that in China, policy decisions on where and how to develop coastal land may have a more significant impact on future flooding than climate change itself.

In a comment published in Nature Climate Change, Mark Bradford, the E.H. Harriman Professor of Soils and Ecosystem Ecology, and Yale School of the Environment research scientists Sara Kuebbing and Alexander Polussa, Ph.D., together with colleagues Emily Oldfield, Ph.D., of Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and Jonathan Sanderman of the Woodwell Climate Research Center, argue that the scientific evidence supporting soil carbon's role in mitigating climate change remains too weak to meet the standards required for policy and carbon markets.

Researchers at Georgia Tech have analyzed the seasonal differences of sulfate aerosols—a major pollutant in the United States—to examine the long-term impact from sulfur dioxide (SO₂) emission reductions since the enactment of the Clean Air Act amendments in 1990.

A collaborative research team led by University of Tasmania scientists has returned from a major 54-day voyage on CSIRO research vessel (RV) Investigator to explore the impacts of the devastating 2022 eruption of Tonga's underwater Hunga Volcano.

A new study published in the journal Science, led by scientists at the City College of New York (CCNY) and Columbia University, challenges long-held beliefs about how El Niño events influence rainfall during the Indian summer monsoon. The findings show that while El Niño often brings drought conditions to India overall, it also increases the likelihood of devastating downpours in some of the country's most heavily populated regions.

The exchange of water and heat between Earth and its atmosphere determines climate zones and ecosystems, which in turn influence where essential human activities take place.

Warming may lead to less frequent but bigger and more devastating hail storms, new research has shown.

Beneath our feet, an invisible world of electron exchanges quietly drives the chemistry that sustains ecosystems, controls water quality, and even determines the fate of pollutants.

Powerful pulses of groundwater flow up from beneath Lakes Michigan and Huron, which together form one of the largest freshwater systems in the world. This groundwater flux may dramatically alter how and where ice forms, with important implications for ice-climate models. As climate change pressures the system, new research suggests that conventional models may underestimate how groundwater can destabilize lake ice along its shorelines (coasts).

Salt intrusion is a growing concern worldwide. Eleonora Saccon, who completed a master's degree in climate change ecology in her native Italy, studied the effects of salty surface water at the NIOZ branch in Zeeland.

UC Riverside researchers have discovered a piece that was missing in previous descriptions of the way Earth recycles its carbon. As a result, they believe that global warming can overcorrect into an ice age.

A vital waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the Panama Canal relies on fresh water supplied by a reservoir to raise and lower the locks that allow the transit of thousands of ships a year.

Typhoons and their Atlantic counterparts—hurricanes—can develop into massively destructive storms that can take a severe toll on both infrastructure and human life. Climate change is additionally spurring even more intense storms with higher wind speeds and rainfall.

Earth scientists often face huge challenges when researching Earth's history: many significant events occurred such a long time ago that there is little direct evidence available. Consequently, researchers often have to rely on indirect clues or on computer models.

The highest rock wall in the Alps—the Monte Rosa East Face on the border between Italy and Switzerland—has for the first time been surveyed three-dimensionally with high precision. An international research team from the universities of Milan, Prague and Heidelberg has taken more than 3,000 high-resolution photos from a helicopter. Using a special method, a detailed 3D model is now emerging.

Tornadoes on the outer edges of a typhoon's spiral rain bands are a severe convective weather phenomenon that occurs on the periphery of tropical cyclone systems. Compared to the core region near the typhoon's center, the atmospheric instability and vertical wind shear conditions in these outer areas often combine in more subtle and easily overlooked ways, making their occurrence and development more sudden and localized. This poses greater challenges for forecasting and early warning.

A joint research group has identified that the spatial scale of "heterogeneity" in the upper mantle, caused by a large-scale flow called a mantle plume rising from deep Earth, is less than 10 kilometers.

Most Californians are familiar with earthquakes. But researchers say the state faces an overlooked threat: "supershear" earthquakes that move so fast they outrun their own seismic waves.

Tens of thousands of earthquakes shook the Greek island of Santorini and the surrounding area at the beginning of the year. Now, researchers have published a comprehensive geological analysis of the seismic crisis in the journal Nature.

Human settlements around the world are moving inland and relocating away from coastlines as sea levels rise and coastal hazards grow more severe, but a new international study shows the poorest regions are being forced to stay put or even move closer to danger.