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Updated: 5 hours 7 min ago

Analysis reveals powerful nor'easters, the 'perfect storms' of the Atlantic, are intensifying

Wed, 07/16/2025 - 10:28
Nor'easters are powerful and often destructive cyclonic storms that primarily impact the East Coast of North America. Some of these weather events have been so fierce that they earned the names "Perfect Storm," "Storm of the Century," and "Snowmaggedon."

Relief from drought in southwest U.S. likely isn't coming, according to new research

Tue, 07/15/2025 - 18:50
The Southwest United States is currently facing its worst megadrought of the past 1,200 years. According to a recent study by the University of Texas at Austin, the drought could continue at least until the end of the century, if not longer.

The anatomy of a flash flood: Why the Texas flood was so deadly

Tue, 07/15/2025 - 16:50
Between July 3 and 6, Texas Hill Country experienced catastrophic flash flooding along the Guadalupe River system. The floods claimed at least 130 lives, with over 96 fatalities in Kerr County alone. More than 160 people were missing as of July 12, including children attending camps along the river.

Melting Arctic ice bolstering North Atlantic Ocean currents, for now

Tue, 07/15/2025 - 10:40
From more frequent wildfires to rising sea levels, climate change is disrupting ecosystems and upending once-stable weather patterns. One particularly alarming consequence of rising global temperatures is the potential collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a conveyor-belt-like system of ocean currents driven by the sinking of cold, salty waters in the North Atlantic.

Agro-pastoral activities accelerated mountain soil erosion for 3,800 years, study finds

Mon, 07/14/2025 - 19:00
Over the last 3,800 years, agro-pastoral activities have accelerated alpine soil erosion at a pace four to 10 times faster than their natural formation. The history of this erosion has just been revealed for the first time by a research team led by a CNRS scientist.

Fossilized oysters hold key to mass extinction: Study finds event triggered by ocean pH drop

Mon, 07/14/2025 - 16:50
In the first and only reconstruction of ocean pH ever carried out, new research from the University of St Andrews and the University of Birmingham has discovered that a rapid acidification of oceans, due to a massive and sudden rise in atmospheric CO2, caused a mass extinction event 201 million years ago.

Tracing black carbon's journey to the ocean

Mon, 07/14/2025 - 15:50
Whether from a forest on fire or gasoline powering a car, organic matter rarely combusts completely: Remnants such as char and soot can persist in the environment for decades. Over time, as physical and biological processes break down the scorched leftovers, some of the carbon they contain leaches into groundwater, lakes, and rivers, eventually making its way to the ocean.

So what do the world's coastlines look like in 2025? Scientists revisit turn-of-the-century forecasts

Mon, 07/14/2025 - 13:50
At the dawn of the millennium, a group of eminent scientists began compiling a list of the threats they felt were most likely to impact the world's rocky shorelines over the coming quarter of a century.

Why speleothem δ¹⁸O records miss 100,000-year climate cycles in Southern China

Mon, 07/14/2025 - 13:39
A new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences solves a long-standing climate mystery: Why don't the records of oxygen isotopes (δ18O) in cave formations like stalagmites—known as speleothems—from central southern China reflect the well-known 100,000-year cycles of ice ages seen in other global climate records? These speleothem δ18O records have long been considered a key indicator of the strength of the Asian summer monsoon, so their failure to show these major climate shifts has puzzled scientists for decades.

'Hope isn't enough—we need action when it comes to climate change': An earth scientist's guide for the future

Mon, 07/14/2025 - 13:20
Climate change is coming… but what on Earth can we do about it? Scientist Dr. Kimberley Miner has written a guide to riding out the oncoming almighty storm.

Study finds repetitive flooding far more common across North Carolina than thought

Mon, 07/14/2025 - 13:00
A new study from UNC-Chapel Hill reveals that repetitive flooding in North Carolina is far more common and more widespread than previously recognized, with over 20,000 buildings flooding multiple times between 1996 and 2020.

Philippine scientists' warning vs. 'indirect' effect of tropical cyclones during the monsoon season

Mon, 07/14/2025 - 12:20
Tropical cyclones hundreds of kilometers away from the Philippines are often more responsible for heavy rainfall than those that hit the country directly during the annual "Habagat" or southwest monsoon season from July to September, according to new research published in Atmospheric Research.

Air pollution cuts in East Asia likely accelerated global warming

Mon, 07/14/2025 - 09:00
The cleanup of air pollution in East Asia has accelerated global warming, a new study published today (Monday, 14 July) in the journal Communications Earth and Environment has found.

Polar vortex patterns explain shifting US winter cold despite warming climate

Fri, 07/11/2025 - 18:00
Despite a warming climate, bone-chilling winter cold can grip parts of the U.S. In a study appearing in Science Advances, researchers found that two specific patterns in the polar vortex, a swirling mass of cold air high in the stratosphere, steer extreme cold to different regions of the country. One pattern drives Arctic air into the Northwest U.S., the other into the Central and Eastern areas.

Mantle's hidden role in tungsten formation upends long-held geological theories

Fri, 07/11/2025 - 13:15
Tungsten (W), a hard, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant metal, is indispensable to modern high-tech industries—from aerospace and defense to computing. While its global distribution is uneven, most tungsten deposits share defining geological traits: close ties to highly evolved, volatile-rich granites; formation from melted sedimentary rocks (anatexis) in tungsten-rich granitoids; and occurrence in back-arc or intraplate zones rather than convergent tectonic margins. These features have long supported theories of a purely crustal origin for tungsten mineralization.

Mysterious reed-covered mounds reveal vast underground water network in Great Salt Lake

Fri, 07/11/2025 - 10:11
As Great Salt Lake's levels continue to sag, yet another strange phenomenon has surfaced, offering Utah scientists more opportunities to plumb the vast saline lake's secrets.

Rivers choose their path based on erosion, a discovery that could transform flood planning and restoration

Fri, 07/11/2025 - 09:10
Rivers are Earth's arteries. Water, sediment and nutrients self-organize into diverse, dynamic channels as they journey from the mountains to the sea. Some rivers carve out a single pathway, while others divide into multiple interwoven threads. These channel patterns shape flood risks, erosion hazards and ecosystem services for more than three billion people who live along river corridors worldwide.

Newly discovered ancient river landscapes may control ice flow in East Antarctica

Fri, 07/11/2025 - 09:00
The remains of landscapes thought to have formed when ancient rivers flowed across East Antarctica have been discovered—and could help predictions of future loss from the ice sheet.

Sediments exposed by glacier melt begin emitting greenhouse gases over time

Thu, 07/10/2025 - 18:10
A new study conducted by geologists from the University of Florida and the University of Maryland reveals that, as land is exposed by melting glaciers, chemical reactions in the newly uncovered glacial sediments initially suppress greenhouse gas emissions.

Satellite mapping reveals tropical tree cover losses underestimated by 17%, highlighting gaps in global tracking

Thu, 07/10/2025 - 16:00
A new study published in Nature Communications has found that 17.31% of tropical tree cover—an area spanning 395.9 million hectares (Mha)—has been consistently overlooked by global forest monitoring systems, exposing significant gaps in efforts to track deforestation and ecological degradation.

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