Phys.org: Earth science

Studies of sediment cores from the sea floor and the coastal regions surrounding the Aegean Sea show that humans contaminated the environment with lead early on in antiquity.

An international team of Earth and environmental scientists has found evidence that the Ronne Ice Shelf in the West Antarctic did not melt during the last interglacial event, suggesting it could survive modern climate change. In their study published in the journal Nature, the team analyzed ice core samples taken from a site near the shelf's edge. The editors at Nature have also published a Research Briefing summarizing the work.

An international research team led by the University of Göttingen has investigated the influence of the forces exerted by the Zagros Mountains in the Kurdistan region of Iraq on how much the surface of the Earth has bent over the last 20 million years. Their research has revealed that in the present day, deep below the Earth's surface, the Neotethys oceanic plate—the ocean floor that used to be between the Arabian and Eurasian continents—is breaking off horizontally, with a tear progressively lengthening from southeast Turkey to northwest Iran.

The Yellow River, which stretches from the Tibetan Plateau to the Bohai Sea in China, is so called because of the color lent by massive amounts of suspended sediments along its 5,400-kilometer length. Its waters, sediments, and nutrients support more than 100 million people and many endemic plant and animal species. China's "Mother River" also transports metals such as iron, cobalt, arsenic, and platinum, a process with important implications for the health and evolution of downstream ecosystems.

Weather, climate and hydrometeorology forecasts require accurate surface–atmosphere coupled modeling. This requires the use of proper coupling heights in computing surface turbulent fluxes, or the exchanges of heat, moisture and momentum between the surface of the Earth and the near-surface thin layer of air called the surface layer.

Mangrove forests along the Amazon coast release significant amounts of trace elements such as neodymium and hafnium. These elements and their isotopic compositions can serve to understand the inputs of micronutrients which are vital for marine life.

New Cornell University led-research challenges the long-standing belief that active volcanoes have large magma bodies that are expelled during eruptions and then dissipate over time as the volcanoes become dormant.

The state of Maine was hit by a rare 3.8 magnitude earthquake Monday morning, a tremor that could be felt across the New England region.

As we burn fossil fuels, the amount of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere is gradually rising, and with it, the planet's average temperature. How fast the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide—and with it, the temperature—goes up matters for the ability of humans and ecosystems to adjust. A slower increase gives humans time to move away from low-lying areas and animals time to move to new habitats.

The rate of ocean warming has more than quadrupled over the past four decades, a new study has shown. Ocean temperatures were rising at about 0.06 degrees Celsius per decade in the late 1980s, but are now increasing at 0.27 degrees Celsius per decade.

The Arctic's "Last Ice Area" (LIA)—a vital habitat for ice-dependent species—might disappear within a decade after the central Arctic Ocean becomes ice-free in summer, which is expected to occur sometime around mid-century, a new study by McGill University researchers using a high-resolution model has found.

An interdisciplinary team of researchers from NTU Singapore, and Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), The Netherlands, has projected that if the rate of global CO2 emissions continues to increase and reaches a high emission scenario, sea levels would as a result very likely rise between 0.5 and 1.9 meters by 2100. The high end of this projection's range is 90 centimeters higher than the latest United Nations' global projection of 0.6 to 1.0 meters.

Clouds, composed of tiny water droplets or ice crystals, play a vital role in regulating Earth's climate by influencing the amount of solar radiation that reaches the surface. The cloud phase significantly impacts the surface energy balance as liquid water clouds reflect more radiation than ice clouds.

Using a nearly 200-year record of lava chemistry from Kīlauea and Maunaloa, Earth scientists from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa and colleagues revealed that Hawai'i's two most active volcanoes share a source of magma within the Hawaiian plume. Their discovery was published recently in the Journal of Petrology.

A study reveals that fire emissions in the Amazon and Cerrado are largely driven by the smoldering combustion of woody debris. This crucial discovery highlights the significant influence of fuel characteristics on fire emissions, with wide-ranging implications for global carbon cycles, air quality and biodiversity.

There's often little warning when a tsunami strikes, but a research team at USF aims to improve the forecasting of these hazardous events for communities that are most at risk.

The Earth's surface is constantly reshaped by the movement of tectonic plates, which make up the continental crust on which we are living. These tectonic plates are in continuous motion, and when one plate is pushed under another, it is called "subduction." These processes play a crucial role in shaping the Earth's landmasses, including the islands of Japan, over several hundred million years.

Antarctic krill swimming between the Southern Ocean's surface and seafloor depths, make a "surprisingly small" contribution to the carbon export "highway" compared to their fast-sinking feces, according to research published in Science.

A study led by The University of Western Australia has revealed new insights into the landscape profile of the Avon River Critical Zone Observatory in Western Australia.

A large international team of researchers with a wide variety of backgrounds has found evidence that carbon storage below seaweed farms can accumulate as much carbon as some Blue Carbon habitats. In their study published in Nature Climate Change, the group analyzed data from multiple seaweed farms around the globe.