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Updated: 20 hours 56 min ago

Seismologists share early analyses of Myanmar earthquake

Tue, 04/15/2025 - 19:05
The 28 March magnitude 7.7 Mandalay, Burma (Myanmar) earthquake caused widespread and severe damage in Myanmar and neighboring countries such as Thailand, with more than 5,000 casualties now confirmed. At the Seismological Society of America's Annual Meeting, researchers from around the globe shared early insights into the earthquake's fault properties, ground shaking and infrastructure damage.

Fiber optics detect crevasse icequakes on alpine glacier

Tue, 04/15/2025 - 18:55
Fiber optic cable deployed on a Swiss glacier has detected the seismic signals of crevasses opening in the ice, confirming that the technology could be useful in monitoring such icequakes, according to a report at the Seismological Society of America's Annual Meeting.

The 'surprising' effect of drying headwaters on nitrogen dynamics

Tue, 04/15/2025 - 18:53
At the uppermost reaches of stream networks, headwaters dry up during the summer, then burst back into existence when spring brings rain. These nonperennial headwater streams are individually small, but collectively, they make up most of the length of global stream networks, and their chemistry is consequential for downstream waters.

Turkey-Syria temblors reveal missing piece in earthquake physics

Tue, 04/15/2025 - 18:44
The 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquake struck southern Turkey and Syria along the East Anatolian Fault. The magnitude 7.8 quake and its magnitude 7.5 aftershock devastated the region, killing tens of thousands of people and destroying hundreds of thousands of buildings.

Engineering a better beach day: Study identifies critical elevation threshold for barrier island recovery after storms

Tue, 04/15/2025 - 16:50
Driving through almost any coastal town, you'll notice staples of being at the beach: ice-cream stands, seafood shacks, bridges leading to the shore. But what if they all washed away?

Estuaries around the world expected to become saltier in coming decades

Tue, 04/15/2025 - 16:13
In estuaries—the transitional zones between rivers and the sea—fresh and salt water are constantly battling for dominance. But due to climate change, the saltwater is gaining ground. New research by Utrecht University's Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research (IMAU) in collaboration with Deltares shows that saltwater intrusion—where seawater pushes inland into rivers—is on the rise globally.

Volcanic ash is a silent killer, more so than lava: What Alaska needs to know with Mount Spurr likely to erupt

Tue, 04/15/2025 - 15:49
Volcanoes inspire awe with spectacular eruptions and incandescent rivers of lava, but often their deadliest hazard is what quietly falls from the sky.

Scientists trace hailstone origins using chemical fingerprints, overturning decades-old theories

Tue, 04/15/2025 - 15:39
A team of scientists has cracked open one of meteorology's enduring mysteries—how hailstones grow inside storm clouds—using an innovative approach that analyzes chemical signatures locked in the ice. The findings, published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, challenge long-held assumptions about hail formation and could lead to improved severe weather prediction.

Monsoons and groundwater pumping: How climate change and human interventions drive greening of the Thar desert

Tue, 04/15/2025 - 15:10
Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar-led research suggests climate change, increased monsoon rainfall and expanded groundwater pumping have driven substantial vegetation growth in the Thar Desert over the past two decades.

Mapping change: Decades of satellite imagery reveal new insights into river mobility

Tue, 04/15/2025 - 13:37
An analysis of satellite imagery of major river systems in the Philippines has revealed surprising insights into how rivers behave, with significant implications for river management in tropical settings.

Ancient rocks reveal how water helped shape the world

Tue, 04/15/2025 - 13:23
New Curtin-led research has revealed that water played a far bigger role than previously thought in shaping Earth's first continents, transforming the planet's early crust and helping to build the landmasses we see today.

New evidence uncovers origin of 'ghost-arc signatures' in global mid-ocean ridge basalts

Tue, 04/15/2025 - 13:13
Mid-ocean ridge basalts (MORBs), located far from subduction zones, are typically thought to be unaffected by subduction processes. However, some MORBs display arc-like geochemical signatures—including negative Nb anomalies and elevated H2O/Ce and Ba/Th ratios—referred to as "ghost-arc signatures."

Amount of sunlight reaching Earth's surface varies over decades, researchers report

Tue, 04/15/2025 - 07:00
The sun may rise every morning, but the amount of sunlight reaching Earth's surface can substantially vary over decades, according to a perspective article led by an international research team.

Tidal flooding on Indian lake demands lasting solutions

Mon, 04/14/2025 - 18:18
Since December, Raphel Abraham has been struggling to cope with life in his flooded home on the banks of Vembanad Lake, in Edakochi, southern India.

AI enables prediction of El Niño events in South Atlantic Ocean months in advance

Mon, 04/14/2025 - 17:22
The El Niño phenomenon in the South Atlantic and Benguela current, which flows along the west coast of southern Africa, have a significant impact on the tropical Atlantic region, leading to extensive effects on local marine ecosystems, African climates, and the El Niño Southern Oscillation. No one has been able to predict warm events in this region until now.

When ice ages end, ocean circulation fine-tunes ocean heat

Mon, 04/14/2025 - 16:56
Much of Earth's heat uptake is passed to the ocean, making ocean heat content key for understanding long-term climate patterns. Ocean heat content is typically lower during ice ages and rises during warmer periods of glacier retreat. Over the past 1.2 million years, ice ages and interglacials have occurred in cycles lasting about 100,000 years, and we are currently in an interglacial period after the Last Glacial Maximum occurred about 20,000 years ago.

Ocean wave formation study improves forecasting for coastal flood protection

Mon, 04/14/2025 - 16:41
Scientists at the University of Miami's Alfred C. Glassell Jr. SUrge‐STructure‐Atmosphere INteraction (SUSTAIN) laboratory conducted a first-of-its-kind study into how waves form and increase in windy and hurricane conditions. The research, which reconstructs the two-dimensional profile of pressure and airflow above wavy surfaces, provides new insights into understanding ocean wave growth and its broader implications for weather forecasting and coastal resilience.

The largest flood in Earth's history burst through Gibraltar and Sicily and refilled the entire Mediterranean

Mon, 04/14/2025 - 16:13
A little over 5 million years ago, water from the Atlantic Ocean found a way through the present-day Strait of Gibraltar. According to this theory, oceanic water rushed faster than a speeding car down a kilometer-high slope towards the empty Mediterranean Sea, excavating a skyscraper-deep trough on its way.

Deep-sea mining study reveals significant environmental and economic risks to coastal communities and businesses

Mon, 04/14/2025 - 15:24
Deep-sea mining (DSM) not only poses significant environmental, social, and economic risks that may have far-reaching implications for coastal communities and Small Island Developing States (SIDS), it is also likely to negatively affect the business community, including insurers and investors, says a new study by researchers from the University of British Columbia and the Dona Bertarelli Philanthropy.

Crustal brines at an oceanic transform fault: New research explores geological processes along plate boundaries

Mon, 04/14/2025 - 15:16
In an article published in Science Advances, a collaborative team led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) presents a never-before-seen image of an oceanic transform fault from electromagnetic (EM) data collected at the Gofar fault in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

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