Phys.org: Earth science

Major storms are spreading industrial contaminants across entire neighborhoods, raising concerns about future well-being, especially in communities of color, according to new research from Rice University and the University of Alberta.

A new algorithmic framework that can predict flooding could help save lives and reduce the devastation as climate change drives more intense and unpredictable rainfall.

More than 900 people are dead, thousands more missing and millions affected by a band of cyclones and extreme monsoonal weather across southern Asia. Torrential rain has triggered the worst flooding in decades, accompanied by landslides. Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia have been hit hardest. The death toll is likely to rise significantly.

A new study published in Scientific Reports reports the discovery of a remarkably extensive hydrothermal vent field on the shelf of Milos Island, Greece. The vents were identified during the METEOR expedition M192, where the research team used a combination of different methods, including underwater technologies such as autonomous and remotely operated vehicles, to survey the seafloor.

In a step toward better understanding how the ocean sequesters carbon, new findings from UC Santa Barbara researchers and collaborators challenge the current view of how carbon dioxide is "fixed" in the sunless ocean depths. UCSB microbial oceanographer Alyson Santoro and colleagues, publishing in the journal Nature Geoscience, present results that help to reconcile discrepancies in accounting for nitrogen supply and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) fixation at depth.

A new Tulane University study published in Science Advances sheds light on how floods influence the way rivers move, offering fresh insight into how changing flood patterns may reshape waterways and the communities that depend on them.

Coral reefs have long been celebrated as biodiversity hotspots—but new research shows they have also played a much deeper role: conducting the rhythm of Earth's carbon and climate cycles for more than 250 million years.

When fire broke out at the world's largest battery energy storage facility in January 2025, its thick smoke blanketed surrounding wetlands, farms and nearby communities on the central California coast.

Around 12,000 years ago, the last Ice Age ended, global temperatures rose and the early Holocene began, during which time human societies became increasingly settled. A new study published in Nature Geoscience shows the important role played by the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica in this transition.

Slow earthquakes have been discovered to exhibit anomalously slow, long-lasting and small slips, adjacent to regular earthquakes where we sometimes feel catastrophic vibration. However, no one knows the reason why slow earthquakes show such strange characteristics. In a study published in the journal Nature Communications, researchers at The University of Osaka succeeded in experimentally reproducing the multiple features of slow earthquakes in the lab and suggested the grain-scale origin of them based on their direct observations.

The United Nations' global climate summit has finished for another year. Some progress was made in Brazil on climate finance and adaptation. But efforts to end reliance on fossil fuels were stymied by—you guessed it—fossil fuel power.

A new study published in Science Advances overturns a long-standing paradigm in climate science that stronger Northern Hemisphere summer insolation produces stronger tropical rainfall. Instead, a precisely dated 129,000-year rainfall reconstruction from a Cuban cave shows that the Caribbean often did the opposite, drying during intervals of intensified summer insolation.

Researchers from the Institute of Applied Ecology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of California, Riverside, have investigated how the loss of forest soil gaseous nitrogen (NO, N2O, and N2) is affected by climate warming, highlighting the critical role of these gases in regulating forest nutrient cycling and ecosystem functioning.

There are fewer ice nuclei in the air above the large ice surfaces of Antarctica than anywhere else in the world. This is the conclusion reached by an international research team led by the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) based on filter measurements of cloud particles at three locations in Antarctica. These are the first of their kind on the continent. The data fills a knowledge gap and could explain the large proportion of supercooled liquid water in the clouds of the southern polar region.

Successive major droughts, each lasting longer than 85 years, were likely a key factor in the eventual fall of the Indus Valley Civilization, according to a paper published in Communications Earth & Environment. The findings may help explain why this major ancient civilization—a contemporary of ancient Egypt located around the modern India-Pakistan border—slowly declined, and highlights how environmental factors could shape ancient societies.

A satellite deployed to measure ocean surface heights was up to the challenge when a massive earthquake off the Kamchatka Peninsula triggered a Pacific-wide tsunami in late July.

Shallow seas serve as critical transition zones connecting land and the deep ocean, supplying essential resources for navigation, fisheries, energy exploration, and island reef development. Accurate bathymetric data form the foundation for marine engineering, channel safety, resource assessment, and ecological restoration. However, nearly 50% of global shallow-water areas still lack reliable depth information, creating a major barrier to coastal management and sustainable ocean development.

An international research team has shown that avalanches are crucial to the survival of many glaciers worldwide. The study aims to contribute to better predictions of water resources and natural hazards in the context of global warming.

It's safe to say Rhode Islanders have a symbiotic relationship with Narragansett Bay.

Canada has a marine coastline twice as long as any other country and shares four Great Lakes with the United States. A new report warns that without coordinated planning, coastal communities face increasing flooding and erosion as climate change accelerates.