Phys.org: Earth science

An international research team led by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon has, for the first time, succeeded in visualizing and quantifying the complex airflow dynamics directly above the ocean surface in high resolution. Using an innovative laser measurement system, previously unknown and highly complex mechanisms of energy exchange between wind and waves have been deciphered—a significant step forward for climate research, weather models, and ocean dynamics. The research findings have been published in Nature Communications.

Described as "Earth's kryptonite twin," jadarite is a rare and fascinating mineral that quickly caught the attention of scientists and Superman fans alike.

A combination of sewage overflows and coastal winds could be sending billions of airborne microplastic particles into the world's coastal towns and cities, a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports suggests.

Northern Australia's annual monsoon season brings relief to drought-stricken lands and revitalizes crops and livestock for farmers. But a study of 150,000 years of climate records shows that the monsoon is likely to intensify—triggering a higher risk of flooding while worsening the impact of droughts in East Asia.

Understanding whether lakes are fed predominantly by groundwater or rainwater is critical to managing our water resources in the face of droughts and shortages, new research has found.

Across Europe and around the world, melting glaciers are reshaping landscapes and climate systems. Researchers Elzė Buslavičiūtė and Dr. Laurynas Jukna from the Institute of Geosciences at the Faculty of Chemistry and Geosciences, Vilnius University, explain how satellite data is used to monitor glacier movement, assess their response to climate change, and calculate these changes through remote sensing technologies from space.

New research finds that not only will climate change make heat waves hotter and longer, but the lengthening of heat waves will accelerate with each additional fraction of a degree of warming.

A large increase in atmospheric methane between 2020 and 2022 raised concerns that tropical wetland emissions had surged in response to a changing climate, but a study led by the University of Michigan shows that this was not the case. The methane must have come from somewhere else.

A daily mismatch between temperature and humidity, observed in certain mountain and waterside regions, helps regulate atmospheric dryness. According to a new study published in Science Advances, this protective effect may weaken under global warming.

Over the past two centuries, humans have locked up enough water in dams to shift Earth's poles slightly away from the planet's axis of rotation, according to recent research.

Forests are a crucial resource for carbon mitigation, currently offsetting around 20% of North American carbon emissions. As temperatures continue to rise, scientists are rushing to understand how climate change is affecting forests and their carbon sequestering abilities. A new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides some valuable insight into how warmer winters might hinder the ability of trees to store carbon—despite warmer summers encouraging their growth.

The ocean absorbs carbon from the atmosphere, but exactly how much is uncertain. For instance, estimates from the 2023 Global Carbon Budget ranged from 2.2 billion to 4 billion metric tons of carbon per year. One source of this uncertainty may be that the effects of bubbles have not been incorporated into air-sea carbon flux estimates, according to a new study by P. Rustogi and colleagues published in Global Biogeochemical Cycles.

Existing sea level rise models for coastal cities often overlook the impacts of rainfall on infrastructure. Researchers at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa discovered that by 2050, large rain events combined with sea level rise could cause flooding severe enough to disrupt transportation and contaminate stormwater inlets across 70% of Waikīkī on O'ahu, Hawai'i, due to interactions with water in the Ala Wai Canal.

The devastating floods that killed nearly 200 people in Germany four years ago could have been even more damaging, new research suggests. The floods in July 2021 were among the worst disasters in German history. At least 196 people died in Germany, 43 people died in Belgium and the total damage to Central Europe amounted to €46 billion.

Any home gardener knows they have to tailor their watering regime for different plants. Forgetting to water their flowerbed over the weekend could spell disaster, but the trees will likely be fine. Plants have evolved different strategies to manage their water use, but soil moisture models have mostly neglected this until now.

Melting glaciers may be silently setting the stage for more explosive and frequent volcanic eruptions in the future, according to research on six volcanoes in the Chilean Andes.

A joint project which saw two boreholes drilled in northern Singapore has revealed subsurface temperatures reaching up to 122°C at a depth of 1.76 km in Sembawang, significantly higher than earlier findings recorded in Admiralty, where 70°C was measured at a depth of 1.12 km.

A new study conducted at Reichman University's School of Sustainability presents an innovative tool to help decision-makers better understand the condition of streams and thereby advance their restoration and rehabilitation. The tool, called SESBI—the Stream Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity Index—is designed to measure what is called "stream health," meaning the degree to which a stream functions ecologically and contributes to public welfare.

Sea level on Earth has been rising and falling ever since there was water on the planet. Scientists were already able to use sediments and fossils to roughly reconstruct how sea levels changed over time steps of a million years or more.

Due to the radiative thermal conductivity of the mineral olivine, only oceanic plates over 60 million years old and subducting at more than 10 centimeters per year remain sufficiently cold to transport water into Earth's deep mantle. This was found by scientists from the University of Potsdam and from the Helmholtz Center for Geosciences (GFZ) Potsdam, together with international colleagues, by measuring the transparency of olivine under conditions in Earth's mantle for the first time. Their results are published in the journal Nature Communications.