Phys.org: Earth science

A team of U.S. scientists has discovered the oldest directly dated ice and air on the planet in the Allan Hills region of East Antarctica.

Using a mix of airborne and satellite images as well as data from ground sensors, a UCLA-led research team has reconstructed how the shape and reach of the methane plumes from the 2015–16 Aliso Canyon gas blowout evolved during the 112-day disaster.

This image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission on 26 October 2025 shows the "brightness temperature" at the top of Hurricane Melissa as it barreled through the Caribbean Sea toward Jamaica, where it is expected to make landfall.

Irrigation canal maintenance in western Nebraska is taking a giant step forward thanks to an innovative, non-invasive method by Husker geoscientist Mohamed Khalil to check canal integrity. His sophisticated time-lapse analysis pinpoints canal seepage and structural settlement far more accurately and efficiently than traditional approaches—using a technology that can have wide-ranging uses statewide for agriculture, industry and natural resources management.

A research team from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS), along with collaborators, has found that long-term orbital variations occurring over million-year timescales may have served as the "pacemaker" for Earth's ancient oxygenation pulses. Their findings were recently published in Geophysical Research Letters.

A study led by researchers from the University of Sydney and the University of Adelaide has revealed how the breakup of an ancient supercontinent 1.5 billion years ago transformed Earth's surface environments, paving the way for the emergence of complex life.

Since the Industrial Revolution, scientists estimate that the ocean has become around 30% more acidic from the uptake of additional anthropogenic carbon dioxide. Ocean acidification has widespread effects, including loss of coral reefs and a decline in shellfish. Current methods for measuring acidification in the ocean are point-based and labor-intensive, making large-scale, long-term monitoring challenging.

In May 2023, Italy's Emilia-Romagna region experienced devastating, if not unprecedented, floods that caused widespread damage to infrastructure, homes, businesses, and farmland. Seventeen people lost their lives, and the disaster caused an estimated €8.5 billion in damages. The persistent rainfall and resulting landslides and flooding displaced tens of thousands of residents, leaving a deep mark on the region's economy and communities.

Sinking land is quietly destabilizing urban infrastructure in India's largest cities, putting thousands of buildings and millions of people at risk, according to Virginia Tech scientists.

When a slab slides beneath an overriding plate in a subduction zone, the slab takes on a property called anisotropy, meaning its strength is not the same in all directions. Anisotropy is what causes a wooden board to break more easily along the grain than in other directions. In rock, the alignment of minerals such as clay, serpentine, and olivine can lead to anisotropy. Pockets of water in rock can also cause and enhance anisotropy, as repeated dehydration and rehydration commonly occur at depth in a subducting slab.

Two earthquakes were recorded within hours of each other near Marion, North Carolina, and witnesses report they felt shaking miles away, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

A research team led by Academician Jin Zhijun from the Institute of Energy, Peking University, has revealed how interactions between Earth's tectonic activity and astronomical cycles jointly shaped the planet's climate and carbon cycle during the Late Paleozoic Era (360–250 million years ago, or 360–250 Ma). The findings are published in Nature Communications, titled "Tectonic-astronomical interactions in shaping Late Paleozoic climate and organic carbon burial," offering new insights into the deep-time climate system.

The towering peaks of the Southern Andes are not just shaping the skyline of South America—they are also quietly influencing Earth's atmosphere.

Earthquakes in the American state of Utah, the Soultz-sous-Forêts region of France or in the Dutch province of Groningen should not be able to occur even if the subsurface has been exploited for decades. This is because the shallow subsurface behaves in such a way that faults there become stronger as soon as they start moving. At least that is what geology textbooks teach us. And so, in theory, it should not be possible for earthquakes to occur. So why do they still occur in such nominally stable subsurfaces?

On an evening 10 years ago, Porter Ranch resident Matt Pakucko stepped out of his music studio and was walloped by the smell of gas—like sticking your head in an oven, he recalled.

More than half of Tasmania's largest wetland system in kanamaluka / the Tamar River has vanished since European settlement, new research from the University of Tasmania has revealed.

Permafrost thaw can stimulate the release of soil carbon, triggering a positive carbon-climate feedback that may be mediated by changes in soil phosphorus (P) availability.

As global warming continues to reshape Earth's climate, both the occurrence and mechanisms of extreme precipitation events, such as rain and snow, are undergoing profound transformation. These changes in frequency and intensity directly affect agricultural security, ecosystem stability, and infrastructure resilience.

The deep ocean has long been viewed as a quiet realm, largely isolated from the dynamic processes that shape Earth's climate. However, new observations in the western equatorial Pacific have revealed robust intraseasonal variability at depths of 1,500–3,000 meters, with kinetic energy levels reaching up to 10 cm2s-2.

Researchers at University of Tsukuba have identified the source and the factors affecting the radioactive cesium (137Cs) flow to the port of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant via its drainage channels. Using tritium in groundwater that leaked from contaminated water storage tanks as a hydrological tracer, they estimated that ~50% of 137Cs comes from "roof drainage" of the rainwater falling on the reactor buildings. The research is published in the journal Water Research.