Phys.org: Earth science

In March 2002, the Larsen B Ice Shelf collapsed catastrophically, breaking up an area about one-sixth the size of Tasmania.

Global water scarcity, a result of both quantity and quality change, challenges the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. An international team of researchers has now developed a novel modeling approach to identify cost-effective combinations of water management, promising a substantial reduction in future water scarcity.

Polar regions are known to be warming at an enhanced rate compared to lower latitudes, with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change citing a ~5 °C increase in air temperature over Arctic land masses during the 20th century and the highest rates of ~1 °C per decade since the 1980s. Clearly, this so-called "polar amplification" of warming, defined as the ratio of high-latitude (>60 ºN/S) to low-latitude (

As climate change advances, the ocean's overturning circulation is predicted to weaken substantially. With such a slowdown, scientists estimate the ocean will pull down less carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

One of the key metrics for climate modeling is radiative forcing. Most climate models, including the general circulation models (GCMs), focus on the effects of different atmospheric factors on radiative forcing. However, there are still large uncertainties in satellite observations and multi-model simulations associated with some atmospheric factors.

Antigorite is a type of serpentine, which is the most abundant hydrated mineral on the Earth. It is widely believed that this mineral is the main carrier of water deep into the Earth in subducting oceanic plates. It has a wavy structure along the a-axis, and in nature, several polysomes with different m-values (m=13–24) have been identified (polysomatism).

In recent years, global warming has left its mark on the Antarctic ice sheets. The "eternal" ice in Antarctica is melting faster than previously assumed, particularly in West Antarctica more than East Antarctica. The root for this could lie in its formation, as an international research team led by the Alfred Wegener Institute has now discovered.

Rowan University climate scientist Dr. Andra Garner last year documented in the journal Scientific Reports that Atlantic Hurricanes, like the current storm Beryl, have developed faster and with greater strength over the past 50 years.

Earth system models (ESMs) help us understand climate and environmental changes. With advances in computing power, ESMs can now be run at kilometer-scale (k-scale) resolutions, capturing very fine details to better predict extreme weather and understand water, carbon, and energy cycles.

A new study questions the coherence of the circulation in the North Atlantic Ocean, as researchers show that the Gulf Stream exists, but variations off the coast of Florida do not necessarily reach Norway.

Roads and sidewalks in some areas get so hot that skin contact could result in second-degree burns.

Accurate and comprehensive building data is critical for urban management and planning. Existing datasets, such as those from Microsoft and OpenStreetMap, often lack completeness and accuracy in East Asia, limiting their utility for large-scale applications. The complex distribution of buildings and scarcity of auxiliary data in this region further complicate the extraction of reliable building footprints.

Climate is a major factor affecting economic and social outcomes. In China, the country's National Climate Center releases an annual climate report that comprehensively covers China's achievements and progress that year in climate monitoring and impact assessment. This series of reports has been published in Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Letters for six consecutive years since 2019, and the "State of China's climate in 2023" is now available.

Global warming as well as recent droughts and floods threaten large populations along the Nile Valley. Understanding how such a large river will respond to an invigorated hydrological cycle is therefore a pressing issue. Insights can be gained by studying past periods with wetter and warmer conditions, such as the North African Humid Period 11 to 6 thousand years ago.

Understanding how gold forms is crucial for knowing where to find it and how to extract it sustainably. McGill researchers have answered a long-standing question in geology that could lead to new ore discoveries.

NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick captured this image of Hurricane Beryl in the Caribbean on July 1, 2024, while aboard the International Space Station, and posted it to X. The Category 4 hurricane had winds of about 130 mph (215 kph).

Surface mapping technology such as GPS, radar and laser scanning have long been used to measure features on the Earth's surface. Now, a new computational technique developed at The University of Texas at Austin is allowing scientists to use those technologies to look inside the planet.

Melting of glaciers in a major Alaskan icefield has accelerated and could reach an irreversible tipping point earlier than previously thought, new research suggests.

Increased atmospheric moisture may alter critical weather patterns over Africa, making it more difficult for the predecessors of many Atlantic hurricanes to form, according to a new study published this month. The work is published in the Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems.

The California state Department of Water Resources has started using laser and sonar technology to measure reservoir capacity, determining that Lake Oroville, the State Water Project's largest reservoir, has shrunk since its creation in 1960.