Phys.org: Earth science

A team of researchers is making final preparations for a trip to Mount Everest in Nepal next month to explore why the ice of one of the mountain's most iconic glaciers is so close to the melting point.

NPL and MSL in New Zealand successfully detected a multitude of earthquakes in the Pacific Ocean using a pioneering detection technique.

Most of the United States' major climate regulations are underpinned by one important document: It's called the endangerment finding, and it concludes that greenhouse gas emissions are a threat to human health and welfare.

Key agreements in the "Law of the River," which encompasses more than 100 years of regulations, laws, court decisions and more focused on managing the Colorado River, are set to expire next year. First established in 1922 as the Colorado River Compact, the guidelines split water management and allocation among seven states.

The risk of damaging flooding from a major tsunami may be greater than many realized along stretches of California's renowned coastline, state officials say, further reinforcing the need for residents to take note if they live in or visit hazardous areas.

New geological data has given more insight into the rate and magnitude of global sea level rise following the last ice age, about 11,700 years ago. This information is of great importance to understand the impact global warming has had on the ice caps and on sea level rise.

The mantle transition zone (MTZ), which occurs 410–670 kilometers below Earth's surface, may store several oceans' worth of water. This water, which is carried to such depths by subducting tectonic slabs, is stored in minerals like ringwoodite and wadsleyite.

Between 18,000 and 11,000 years ago, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere suddenly shot up. This caused rapid global warming, the mass melting of glaciers, and the end of the last ice age.

Successful test results of a new machine learning (ML) technique developed at Georgia Tech could help communities prepare for extreme weather and coastal flooding. The approach could also be applied to other models that predict how natural systems impact society.

The term greenhouse gas often brings carbon dioxide (CO2) to mind, and rightly so, as it is a key contributor to rising global temperatures. However, a more potent pollutant and greenhouse gas that often gets overlooked is nitrous oxide (N2O). Molecule for molecule, N2O is 300 times stronger than CO2 and is accumulating in the atmosphere faster than expected.

Between Hawaii and California, trash swirls in giant ocean currents, caught up in the infamous, Texas-sized Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This is just one of many found across the globe. Efforts to clear the patch with sweeping nets may be well-intentioned, but the financial and environmental costs of fuel make them controversial.

Guided by the lived experiences of community partners, Northwestern University scientists have simulated the effects of zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) adoption on future air quality for the greater Chicago area.

Public officials designing seawalls, levees and other safeguards against rising seas can save money if their solutions are flexible, adapting to sea-level increases over time, according to an analysis by scientists at Rutgers and Princeton universities.

Stretching from Montana to Missouri, the Missouri River basin is one of the country's largest river systems. Over the past century, its average streamflow has increased by about 40%, with multiple years since 1990 experiencing extremely high flow. Streamflow is affected by factors including precipitation, temperature, humidity, and atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), as well as changes in the way land is used, such as replacing forest with cropland. Understanding how these factors interact is critical in helping the public prepare for hydrologic extremes such as floods, which cost the United States billions of dollars per year.

A new study recently published in Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, provides new insights into the meteorological processes responsible for the filling of a normally dry lake in the northwestern Sahara. The research offers a fresh perspective on past climate variations and suggests we can learn from past flooding of the lake on ongoing climate change and future water resources in the desert.

Have you ever heard of—or even seen—red lightning? These are not animated characters but real atmospheric phenomena known as electrical discharges that occur high above thunderstorms. Scientists refer to them as "red sprites," named for their jellyfish-like appearance and vivid red flashes. Now, imagine witnessing these mesmerizing displays over the world's highest mountain range—the Himalayas.

In ancient China, spring rains were called "as precious as oil" for their vital role in nature's spring revival. Today, a unique climate phenomenon known as "spring persistent rainfall" (SPR) prevails in East Asia, bringing about 600 mm of rainfall—more than 35% of the region's annual mean total rainfall.

Using a sediment core taken from the Great Blue Hole off the coast of the Central American state of Belize, researchers from the universities of Frankfurt, Cologne, Göttingen, Hamburg and Bern have analyzed the local climate history of the last 5,700 years.

Flinders University coastal experts are finding more cost-efficient ways to capture crucial seascape elevation data (bathymetry), through current research projects that are monitoring environmental change across areas of South Australia's coastline.

The impact of hurricanes when they travel over land, or when they affect ships or oil-drilling platforms, are quite well understood. But these huge cyclones also stir up the ocean itself, with consequences that are relatively unknown and hard to study.