Phys.org: Earth science

Scientists have for the first time taken in-situ ocean measurements during the collapse of a giant iceberg in the sub-Antarctic. These new observations reveal how ocean ecosystems may be affected if more icebergs calve due to warmer ocean temperatures around Antarctica.

An international team of scientists led by Dr. Luis Guanter, UPV professor and head of the LARS Group of the Institute of Water and Environmental Engineering of the Universitat Politècnica de València (IIAMA-UPV), has documented the largest methane leak ever recorded in an oil well. The well is located in the Karaturun East field (Kazajistán).

Where hidden water tables meet the Earth's surface, life can thrive even in the driest locations. Offering refuge during times of drought, shallow groundwater aquifers act like water savings accounts that can support ecosystems with the moisture required to survive, even as precipitation dwindles.

Despite facing regional threats like deforestation and wildfires, the world's forests continue to be a powerful weapon in the fight against climate change. A new study reveals these vital ecosystems have consistently absorbed carbon dioxide for the past three decades, even as disruptions chip away at their capacity.

From cloud formation to sea temperatures, sea foam plays many roles in the dynamic interactions that occur at the surface level of the world's oceans.

New figures suggest peat soils cover 13% more area than previous peat soil maps, which are useful in land use planning—with peat soils critical in absorbing greenhouse gases (GHG) and helping to meet some of Ireland's most pressing environmental challenges.

Crust and lithospheric mantle—the thinnest and thickest layers of the Earth's lithosphere—and a wide range of dynamic processes that deform them can be studied by using high precision geodetic data taken directly from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). GNSS data and data products can measure and help the user understand such factors as the Earth's geometric shape, orientation in space, and gravity field.

When natural gas leaks from a subsurface pipeline, a ground cover of water/snow saturation, asphalt paving or a combination of these can cause the gas to migrate away from the leak site up to three to four times farther than through dry soil, a new study has found.

The Andean Plateau in South America rises, on average, more than 4,000 meters above sea level, formed by orogenic uplift that began more than 20 million years ago. Orogeny occurs at convergent plate margins as compressed plates crumple upward, resulting in mountain ranges and associated geological features.

Rock weathering and plate tectonics are vital to life. They both regulate the planet's surface temperature and provide bio-essential nutrients. But how and when these critical processes began on Earth is still a mystery. And is it possible that they may date back to Earth's infancy—the Hadean Eon, more than four billion years ago?

New research shows that ozone concentrations at Carlsbad Caverns National Park frequently exceed Environmental Protection Agency health standards, likely due to oil and natural gas development in the Permian Basin and surrounding region.

Britain, prepare for deep depression: Storms ruin tea. A new study reveals that Storm Ciaran cut an invisible path of mayhem across southern Britain last autumn, destroying any possibility that 20 million people could have a proper cup of tea at breakfast.

As the planet continues to warm due to human-driven climate change, accurate computer climate models will be key in helping illuminate exactly how the climate will continue to be altered in the years ahead.

EPFL researchers have discovered that deepwater renewal in Lake Geneva in wintertime is not only due to vertical mixing. Instead, strong currents coming from the lake's Petit Lac basin and nearshore zones of the Grand Lac play a vital role.

Amidst the challenges posed by climate change in predicting typhoons, a team of researchers has developed a technology that leverages real-time satellite data and deep learning capabilities to predict typhoons with greater precision.

For the first time, researchers at ETH Zurich have been able to fully explain the various causes of long-term polar motion in the most comprehensive modeling to date, using AI methods. Their model and their observations show that climate change and global warming will have a greater influence on the Earth's rotational speed than the effect of the moon, which has determined the increase in the length of the day for billions of years.

A trio of physicists and oceanologists, two with the University of Cologne's Institute of Geophysics and Meteorology and the third with the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel, all in Germany, has found via the CESM1 climate model that an extreme El Niño tipping point could be reached in the coming decades under current emissions.

A study published in Science Advances shows that phosphorus (P) release from soils is enhanced at higher mean annual temperatures (MAT). This finding is based on a new compilation of data on global surface soil temperatures and phosphorus content.

In the wet, muddy places where America's rivers and lands meet the sea, scientists from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are unearthing clues to better understand how these vital landscapes are evolving under climate change.

Californians are familiar with landslides that occur around storms, when saturated soil and rock loses its grip and slips from its perch on the substrate. These types of landslides can be triggered by intense rainfall, and incoming storms can be a warning that neighborhoods need to evacuate.