Phys.org: Earth science

For an agricultural nation like New Zealand, severe drought is one of the most ominous consequences of a warming planet.

Multi-year La Niña events—so-called "double-dip" or even "triple-dip" La Niñas—are becoming more common. But why do these events persist for multiple years in the first place?

As densely populated coastal communities struggle to keep up with rising sea levels, new research reveals a way to predict how river deltas build land and protect coastal regions from encroaching oceans. This insight will help engineers and policymakers estimate how much new land can be created or maintained when human intervention is used to redirect river channels, making these efforts more effective for coastal restoration and flood protection.

Can "snow" fall in the ocean and influence the climate of the entire planet? It turns out that it can. Research conducted by scientists from the Faculty of Physics at University of Warsaw, published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, helps us understand how microscopic flakes of dead organic matter collide and sink into the deep ocean, transporting vast amounts of carbon and affecting the pace of global warming.

Asia's last tropical glaciers can be found near Puncak Jaya, Papua, the highest peak in Southeast Asia. But it is unlikely that they will survive until the end of this decade. Over the past 44 years, the peak has lost 97% of its ice and four of its glaciers. Its remaining two glaciers, Carstensz and the East Northwall Firn glacier, are expected to disappear by 2030, adding Indonesia (alongside Venezuela and Slovenia) to the list of countries that have lost all of their glaciers.

Viruses play a far more active role in Earth's carbon cycle than previously understood, according to new research that reveals how they infect and control microbes responsible for carbon production in some of the planet's largest, darkest ecosystems. The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.

Combined extreme climate events are likely to become more common in the future if carbon emissions continue to rise, a paper in Nature suggests. The study finds that the frequency of compound events—such as concurrent hot–wet and drought–heat extremes—is linked to cumulative carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. In particular, the frequency of more severe events is predicted to escalate rapidly.

An international team of scientists has discovered that methane hydrates beneath the northwest Greenland continental shelf became rapidly destabilized by meltwater, releasing large stores of methane during ice-sheet retreat across the continental shelf.

Buffalo's legendary snowfall totals are largely the result of one unlucky geographic reality: the city sits east of the Great Lakes instead of west. Anyone who has lived through a winter in Buffalo, Cleveland or any snowbelt city knows that prevailing westerly winds pick up moisture from the lakes and dump lake-effect snow on their eastern shores.

Grasslands, covering 40% of Earth's vegetated surface, play a crucial role in the global carbon balance but are increasingly threatened by climate-driven water scarcity. A new study published in Science Advances finds, however, that a widespread wind speed decline—a phenomenon known as "terrestrial stilling"—is enhancing the ability of global grasslands to absorb more carbon while minimizing water loss. This shift offers a crucial buffer for these water-limited biomes under climate change.

Artificial intelligence is beginning to transform climate science, not just by improving forecasts, but by helping researchers understand the physical forces shaping the planet's future.

It all began with a perfectly ordinary chat over coffee between four researchers. How many films featuring geologists can we think of? Quite quickly, the colleagues were able to come up with about 10 films. But then the scientific mind of one of them sprang into action.

Atmospheric methane levels have surged to record highs in recent years and are projected to increase by as much as 13% by 2030, according to a report from the Climate & Clean Air Coalition. As scientists work to better understand what is driving this rise, a new collaborative study published in Nature Communications used methane isotopologues to trace where recent emissions originate and how they are changing around the world.

Researchers at the University of Bristol have developed a new method which could help scientists perform large-scale climate simulations at a fraction of the cost and time needed compared to traditional climate models. The team, led by Dr. Charles Williams, Senior Lecturer in the School of Geographical Sciences, wanted to investigate factors influencing the way Earth's climate has repeatedly swung between cold glacial "ice ages" and warmer interglacial periods over the last 2.6 million years—known as the Quaternary period.

Every year in the West Pacific, as summer ends and September rolls around, typhoons are not far behind. Typhoons are the most impactful extreme weather events affecting Japan and East Asia, and due to climate change, extremely strong typhoons are becoming more frequent. In order to adapt critical infrastructure to these massive storms and protect coastal areas, accurate accounting for their future impact is essential.

In 2012, a wildfire ripped through 42 square kilometers of alpine moorland in Africa's Rwenzori Mountains, a range of glaciated peaks on the border of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The blaze, which occurred at an elevation of over 13,000 feet, was shocking to those familiar with the mountains, as the climate had been assumed to be too cold and too wet for fire to spread.

A Dartmouth study shows that annual rainfall in much of the world has consolidated over the past four decades into heavier storms with longer dry periods in between.

The impacts were severe: Within a very short time, tropical storm Doksuri intensified into a super typhoon in July 2023. Exceptionally strong winds tore roofs from houses along the coasts of China and the Philippines, trees were uprooted, and torrential rain flooded streets and residential areas. In many places, everyday life came to a temporary halt.

Geological faults hold many secrets that may help us answer important questions about the nature of our planet and what really happens deep underground. One of the biggest mysteries lies within the Atotsugawa Fault System in Japan. What makes the area unusual is that, despite being in a tectonically active region where Earth's plates are constantly shifting, it does not produce as many large earthquakes as other major faults.

Tropical forests store more than 60% of the world's vegetation biomass and are among the most important ecosystems for regulating the global carbon cycle and climate. However, their regulatory role is greatly influenced by the forests' carbon residence time—how long carbon remains in the vegetation biomass pool before it is released again into the atmosphere. This figure is tied to the rate of biomass turnover—how quickly vegetation is replaced through growth and mortality.