Phys.org: Earth science

Volcanoes that blast gases high into the atmosphere not only change global temperatures but also influence flooding in unusual ways, Princeton researchers have found.

Some 390 million years ago in the ancient ocean, marine animals began colonizing depths previously uninhabited. New research indicates this underwater migration occurred in response to a permanent increase in deep-ocean oxygen, driven by the above-ground spread of woody plants—precursors to Earth's first forests.

Throughout the first half of 2020, average monthly temperatures in Siberia reached 6°C above the norm. The situation climaxed on 20 June, when the temperature in the town of Verkhoyansk climbed to 38°C (100.4°F), the highest temperature ever recorded north of the Arctic Circle. With the extreme heat came wildfires, insect outbreaks, and thawing permafrost.

A new international study published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters reveals that the boundaries between geological epochs and periods, even though randomly distributed, follow a hidden, hierarchical pattern. Co-authored by Prof. Andrej Spiridonov from Vilnius University (VU) Faculty of Chemistry and Geosciences, the research shows that these time boundaries cluster in a way that reflects Earth's system's deepest fluctuations. This finding could reshape how we understand our planet's past and its possible futures.

So-called "100-year weather events" now seem almost commonplace as floods, storms and fires continue to set new standards for largest, strongest and most destructive. But to categorize weather as a true 100-year event, there must be just a 1% chance of it occurring in any given year. The trouble is that researchers don't always know whether the weather aligns with the current climate or defies the odds.

How did freshened water end up beneath the New England Shelf miles offshore, how long has it been there, and how much of it exists?

A new study has uncovered a surprising and concerning paradox: although Earth's vegetation cover has expanded dramatically over the past four decades, this widespread "greening" trend is often associated with a decline in soil moisture, particularly in water-scarce regions. The study is published in Communications Earth & Environment.

New research shows that isotopic signatures of the EASM (East Asian Summer Monsoon) during Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) events are not uniform but rather reflect diverse changes in response to subtle variations of the Westerlies' position.

Worldwide, an estimated 440 million people were exposed to a wildfire encroaching on their home at some point between 2002 and 2021, new research shows. That's roughly equivalent to the entire population of the European Union, and the number has been steadily rising—up 40% over those two decades.

The wetlands found across the Rocky Mountains of Colorado just below tree line are magical places. Dripping with mosses and deep green sedges, these open expanses flanked by evergreens are a breathtaking sight for passing hikers. Moose graze there, and elk gather during their mating season.

Global sea-level change has now been measured by satellites for more than 30 years, and a comparison with climate projections from the mid-1990s shows that they were remarkably accurate, according to two Tulane University researchers whose findings were published in Earth's Future.

Phytoplankton—microscopic algae that form the base of ocean food webs—have long been viewed as transient players in the global carbon cycle: They bloom, die, and the carbon they contain is quickly recycled back into the ecosystem.

The power of a tornado can inflict tremendous damage on residential property, but the impact is also felt by nearby homeowners, even when their property is unscathed.

All the critical minerals the U.S. needs annually for energy, defense and technology applications are already being mined at existing U.S. facilities, according to a new analysis published in the journal Science.

A team of Johns Hopkins researchers is using an innovative X-ray imaging approach to reveal how compression reshapes the tiny spaces and stresses within sandstone—findings that could predict how this common rock used for fuel reservoirs behaves under deep subterranean pressure. The results appear in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth.

New research from Purdue University reveals how moisture influences atmospheric blocking, a phenomenon that often drives heat waves, droughts, cold outbreaks and floods, helping solve a mystery in climate science and improving future extreme weather predictions.

Last summer, Stephanie McNamara got her first glimpse of Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in southern Colorado. The park is a monument to sand, where dunes stretch across 30 square miles and tower nearly 750 feet high, making them the tallest such formations in North America.

A research team has developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can automatically identify and track tropical easterly waves (TEWs)—clusters of clouds and wind that often develop into hurricanes—and separate them from two major tropical wind patterns: the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and the monsoon trough (MT).

A new Stanford study challenges the decades-old view that the rise of land plants half a billion years ago dramatically changed the shapes of rivers.

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine and other institutions have spotted a contradiction in worldwide wildfire trends: Despite a 26% decline in total burned area from 2002 to 2021, the number of people exposed to wildfires has surged by nearly 40%.