Phys.org: Earth science

More than two dozen University of Victoria researchers contributed to "Canada's Changing Climate Report 2026," the country's most comprehensive assessment of how climate change is affecting communities, ecosystems and coastlines across Canada.

Since scientists can't drill 2,900 km (1,800 miles) to the boundary between Earth's core and deep mantle, they must use information relayed by seismic waves recorded during earthquakes to study this region. In a new study published in the journal JGR Solid Earth, a group of scientists used deep learning to study a large set of a specific type of seismic wave. The analysis revealed six continuous bands of irregularities at the core-mantle boundary (CMB) that had previously appeared only as sparse patches.

Lakes may look like picturesque stopping points along a river or stream, but they can have a big influence on what happens to carbon as it moves through a landscape. New research suggests that the more lake-rich a network of streams is, the more carbon is released into the atmosphere rather than carried downstream.

Has El Niño reached the West Coast? You might think it has. After all, the ocean off Southern and Central California is unusually warm. But that warmth is from a recent marine heat wave that predates the current El Niño. Much of the Pacific Coast is experiencing relatively normal conditions while still awaiting the impacts of what could be a very strong El Niño.

UC Riverside scientists have developed a way to identify where Earth's biggest earthquakes are most likely to occur, offering a powerful new tool for improving disaster preparation in some of the most dangerous seismic regions.

Beneath the Arctic Ocean is an orchestra featuring natural and human composers, from cracking sea ice and whistling beluga whales to humming shipping-vessel engines. Researchers from MIT Lincoln Laboratory heard some of this cacophony when analyzing data from commercial off-the-shelf sensors that they integrated and deployed in 2024 during the U.S. Navy's Operation Ice Camp (OIC). This past March, during OIC 2026, the researchers returned to the Arctic with a higher-fidelity version of one of the sensors, a geophone that detects vibrations in the sea ice.

The key to finding more critical minerals may lie in understanding how fluids and chemicals move through rock. As these fluids travel underground, they can dissolve, transport and concentrate valuable minerals in specific places.

Venice really is sinking. Sort of. The home of gondolas, bridges and canals is built across a collection of islands, and the sediments beneath them are gradually compacting, causing the ground to subside. But while the land moves down, climate change is pushing the water up—making the shallow lagoon surrounding the Italian city an increasingly vulnerable environment.

Deep beneath parts of Western Australia, injecting CO2-rich water into iron-rich rocks may offer an unexpected opportunity for both clean energy production and carbon storage.

For decades, scientists have studied iron preserved in ancient rocks to reconstruct how Earth's oceans and atmosphere became rich in oxygen. A new study suggests iron has recorded other major transformations too.

Relatively few people have been to the Arctic, and even fewer have set foot in Antarctica. Most people rely on imagination and the media to visualize these landscapes and the ways they are changing.

The Southern Ocean plays a pivotal role in regulating Earth's climate, yet the clouds that blanket this remote region remain among the least understood features in atmospheric science. By controlling both incoming sunlight and outgoing heat, these clouds strongly influence Earth's energy balance.

A new study provides insight into the economic impact of melting permafrost on Arctic communities. Permafrost is ground that permanently remains below freezing for at least two consecutive years. Permafrost covers about 24% of the Northern Hemisphere, including large areas of Alaska, Canada and Siberia.

A biological methane filter on the seafloor can form much faster than scientists previously believed. An international research team including a University of Bremen researcher observed this over six years at a newly formed methane seep in the deep sea. Earlier models assumed this process would take several decades. The study appears in National Science Review.

The massive January 2022 eruption of Hunga volcano in the Kingdom of Tonga took the world by surprise.

Growing up, many of us were taught to drop, cover and hold on during an earthquake. The guidance is straightforward, but how people actually respond when the ground starts shaking can be far more complicated. Now, UC Berkeley researchers are studying what happens in those critical moments and how fear and risk perception influence people's actions.

Earth may have been pushed deeper into a global deep freeze by something surprisingly ordinary: salt. Around 700 million years ago, Earth entered periods of extreme glaciation known as Snowball Earth, when ice is thought to have spread across much or potentially all of the planet's surface. Scientists have long known that expanding ice could have helped drive this transition: As bright ice replaces darker ocean water, more sunlight is reflected back into space, causing the planet to cool further and allowing even more ice to form.

Weather forecasts rely on many different kinds of data, including temperature, humidity and wind. For the first time, researchers, including those at the University of Tokyo, have demonstrated that a long-theorized improvement to weather models—adding data on water isotopes in the atmosphere—does work. They showed that incorporating satellite measurements of water vapor isotopes into weather models improves forecasts of atmospheric conditions for up to five days, including predictions of heavy rainfall in many regions.

Two powerful hurricanes and a strengthening tropical storm on Wednesday were churning through the Pacific Ocean, where waters were being warmed by a historically strong El Niño climate episode.

Climate change is altering patterns of wildfire activity in Alaska, making fires larger and more common in some areas with historically low fire activity. Wildfires can be difficult to predict because they are affected by intricate interactions among factors including climate, ecology and weather. But a better idea of which fire pathways are more likely is important for future fire forecasting, adaptation and management strategies.