Phys.org: Earth science

Large volcanic eruptions may have played a bigger role in triggering historical famines across China than previously understood, according to a new study that traced links between eruptions, climate disruption, and food shortages over more than four centuries.

The ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system has been rapidly expanding since its launch in 2021. Now, researchers at University of Washington affiliated Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN) have finished all planned installations, bringing the two-state total to 569 seismic monitoring stations spread across Washington and Oregon.

Freshwater from melting Antarctic glaciers may be influencing the Southern Ocean in ways scientists have largely overlooked. New research, published in Frontiers in Marine Science, has found that glacial meltwater is not confined to the ocean's surface, as previously assumed, but can also be detected much deeper in coastal waters along the Western Antarctic Peninsula.

Storm Dave, which swept across northern Europe over the Easter weekend, is an example of what new research from the University of Gothenburg has revealed. Spring storms forming over the North Atlantic have become more common than they were 80 years ago, and this is due to climate change.

A new study led by Professor Mark Trimmer of Queen Mary University of London, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, explains how increases in natural methane emissions will be maximized under future climate warming.

Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) have, for the first time, been able to record a debris flow over a distance of two kilometers at the Illgraben (VS). The study reveals where and how waves form within the flow and what happens when they pass over check dams.

Mangrove forests, once considered one of the world's most threatened coastal ecosystems, are showing signs of recovery worldwide, according to new research from Tulane University that finds decades of losses largely offset by regrowth and expansion.

Ozone pollution has worsened in much of the continental United States over the past decade, fueled by wildfires and the long-distance transport of unhealthy air, according to a new study titled "Fires reverse progress toward ozone air quality standards in the U.S.," led by University of Iowa researchers and published in the journal Science.

Arctic communities are increasingly exposed to dangerous weather events due to climate change and rely on accurate weather forecasts. However, conditions in the lower atmosphere remain poorly observed in the Arctic because monitoring systems are expensive and difficult to deploy.

For the first time, mighty ocean waves generated in the Southern Ocean have been accurately measured all the way to the tiny ripples they form on the shores of Alaska. Professor Ian Young, from the University of Melbourne's Department of Infrastructure Engineering, is lead author on a landmark study that analyzed data from 300 drifting ocean buoys to gain a detailed understanding of how storms in Antarctica drive waves all around the globe.

Deep below the Tyrrhenian Sea offshore Italy, scientists drilled into what they thought would be dark mantle rock—and found pieces of granite that seemingly had no business being there. Those unexpected intrusions turned out to offer a rare glimpse of how a massive fault rapidly pulled deep Earth rocks toward the surface during the opening of a young ocean basin.

Earth is divided into two halves: the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Both reflect equal amounts of sunlight (albedo) even though they have different landmasses and weather patterns, especially cloud distribution. Why this is so is an ongoing mystery waiting to be solved.

You may have heard the rumors of a "monster El Niño." It's not the first time we've heard forecasts like this in Australia, but this time, they aren't coming out of nowhere. Early signs in the Pacific have been building for months and forecasts now point to a high likelihood of a moderate to strong El Niño developing in 2026.

An international team of scientists has discovered that plants are not responding to global warming in the way researchers long assumed. Scientists have expected that ecosystems would keep pace with warming by raising the temperature at which photosynthesis works best.

El Niño is a recurring climate event with impacts across the globe. It has three phases: one cold (known as La Niña), one neutral, and one warm (El Niño).

Off the southern coast of Japan, the Philippine Sea Plate lies underneath the Japanese mainland. The locked tectonic plates threaten to unleash a catastrophic megathrust earthquake, likely within the next few decades. Given the potential devastation a large quake could evoke, constant developments in predictive technology must be sought. However, predicting the unpredictable movement of the seafloor requires innovative thought.

The Hadley circulation, a key atmospheric conveyor belt transporting heat and moisture from the tropics to the subtropics, directly influences subtropical aridity, the positions of tropical rainfall belts, and extreme weather risks. However, climate models have long shown inconsistencies in simulating its upper-level intensity (UP-HCI), undermining the reliability of future projections.

Many rivers flow into the Arctic Ocean north of the Arctic Circle—including the Lena in Siberia and the Mackenzie River in Canada. The deltas of these large and small rivers store large amounts of carbon, which is bound there in frozen soils and sediments. Climate change, however, is destabilizing the deltas from the ocean and land side and also from the air.

An international team of researchers including our Department of Geography has discovered a vast geological structure hidden beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. The findings are published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

A new study in Nature Communications finds a critical climate tipping point in Tibetan permafrost ecosystems. Warming of 2–4 degrees Celsius triggers a self-reinforcing cycle of carbon release that could significantly accelerate climate change, according to the work.