Phys.org: Earth science

Though it was the site of active tectonics 140 million years ago, today, the coast of West Africa is a passive margin, far from an active tectonic plate boundary and thought to be seismically quiet. So scientists don't fully understand why the region is experiencing a growing number of earthquakes between magnitudes 2 and 5. The lack of widespread seismic monitoring stations across the region presents a major challenge.

The phenomenon of regular pulse bursts in lightning research is characterized by continuous pulses occurring at regular intervals, resulting in intermittent rapid changes in the electric field at ground level. The individual pulses last for microseconds, while the entire sequence can last for milliseconds. The mechanism behind their occurrence has long puzzled scientists.

Every day, women are working on frontier science in Earth's unforgiving polar environments. Our study, published today in PLOS Climate, investigated what their experiences are actually like.

A team of geoscientists have analyzed the composition of rocks in the Eifel, a volcanic region encompassing parts of western Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg. They discovered that it differs depending on the region.

Terrestrial water bodies (WBs), including lakes, ponds, and reservoirs, are pivotal components of Earth's hydrological and biogeochemical systems, offering vital ecosystem services. Yet, conventional studies often overlook small water bodies or overstate their prevalence. This is particularly true for regions like the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, which is home to numerous alpine lakes. In these areas, human impact is minimal, and the number of small water bodies is increasing due to glacier melting.

By testing core samples, an international team of geoscientists and geologists has found evidence that much of what is now West Antarctica was a river delta or estuary 34 to 44 million years ago. Their findings are published in the journal Science Advances.

California's earthquake early-warning system is getting a seismic upgrade, one that will allow residents to receive more timely alerts about shaking from an incoming megaquake.

Humanity is ignoring major planetary vital signs as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels soar to all-time highs and Earth records its 12th consecutive month of record-breaking heat, international climate officials warned this week.

Australian scientists are getting closer to detecting bushfires in record time, thanks to cube satellites with onboard AI now able to detect fires from space 500 times faster than traditional on-ground processing of imagery.

A new study finds climate change is likely to make upward spikes of ozone at ground level worse by 2050, which could result in many parts of the United States falling out of compliance with air quality standards and increasing risks to public health.

Data from the pair of CubeSats will offer new insights into how much heat the Arctic and Antarctica radiate into space and how this influences global climate.

Beneath the roar of gunfire and the chaos of D-day, an unlikely hero played a vital role—wetland science. Often overlooked amid military strategies and troop movements, the study of mud proved critical to the success of the largest amphibious invasion in history.

In a recent publication in Nature Communications, researchers have uncovered significant interactions in sea surface temperature (SST) variations between the Western Australian coast and the western-central tropical Pacific.

By taking a close look at the geometrical makeup of rocks where earthquakes originate, researchers at Brown University are adding a new wrinkle to a long-held belief about what causes seismic quakes in the first place.

California relies on its rivers and streams for a plethora of services—water supply, flood control, biodiversity conservation, and hydropower generation, to name a few. As a result, understanding the flow of water through the state's stream network is critical for supporting California's economy and ecosystems.

A team of computer scientists at Microsoft Research AI for Science, working with a colleague from JKU Linz, another from Poly Corporation, and another from the University of Amsterdam, has built what Microsoft describes in its press release, as a "cutting-edge foundation model"—a system called Aurora that can be used to make global weather and air pollution level predictions more quickly than traditional systems.

Ice shelves surrounding Antarctica have been melting with increasing speed in recent years. Much of this melting happens from below, as warm water eats away at their bases. This warm water is moved around Antarctica by currents that remain only partially understood because of the continent's vastness and remoteness. Mapping these currents in better detail will improve understanding of the future of the continent's mantle of ice.

The rate Earth is warming hit an all-time high in 2023 with 92% of last year's surprising record-shattering heat caused by humans, top scientists calculated.

The second annual Indicators of Global Climate Change report, which is led by the University of Leeds, reveals that human-induced warming has risen to 1.19 °C over the past decade (2014-2023)—an increase from the 1.14 °C seen in 2013-2022 (set out in last year's report).

Global navigation satellite system reflectometry (GNSS-R) is emerging as a pivotal technology in remote sensing due to its ability to provide high-precision, real-time data under all weather conditions.