Phys.org: Earth science

Across much of the northern hemisphere, extreme weather events like heat waves and heavy precipitation have increased in frequency and severity over the last several decades. A new study from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) shows that one proposed partial explanation, so-called "quasiresonant amplification of quasistationary Rossby waves," may not be capable of explaining any of this increase in severe weather events.

New research led by Monash University sheds a new perspective on forecasts of future rainfall in Victoria, showing that recent dry conditions may not fully reflect long-term climate change signals.

One of the most devastating extinctions in Earth's history is best known for what didn't die—dinosaurs. But the end-Triassic extinction 201 million years ago wiped out roughly 60% of Earth's species, and scientists are still piecing together how it unfolded.

A new analysis of global wildfire activity in 2025 reveals the world experienced some of the most destructive and deadly fire events in recent history, despite the second lowest area burned since 2002. It highlights a continued trend toward fires becoming increasingly extreme, costly, and disastrous—both economically and in lives lost.

In a study published in Nature Geoscience, a research team led by Prof. Liu Lingli from the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IBCAS) has identified a mean annual precipitation (MAP) threshold of approximately 700 mm, beyond which the dominant controls on ecosystem nitrogen retention shift.

Climate change is exacerbating rainfall, flooding and sea-level rises in coastal and low-lying areas. During the past few years, disastrous floods have swept through Lismore in New South Wales, Northern Queensland, and the Great Ocean Road in Victoria. Large waves have pounded beaches, causing erosion in Byron Bay and Wamberal Beach in NSW and Lancelin, Western Australia.

Some 350,000 years ago, the center of New Zealand's North Island appeared much different than the mountainous, scrub-covered landscape it is today. Amid a glacial period, temperatures were colder and conditions harsher. Vast beech and podocarp forests blanketed the region, providing habitat for abundant native birdlife.

For the past several years, Penn State geoscientist Sarah Ivory and her students have been among a team of scientists scaling the East African Rwenzori Mountains, collecting sediment core samples from lakes formed at the end of the last ice age as glaciers began receding in the region some 12,000 years ago.

Understanding the dynamics of how water moves is deceptively simple in concept and endlessly complex in practice. Real-world marine environments are anything but controlled: weather, seasons, and geography change constantly. Yet understanding water movement is a critical aspect in areas of study like marine biology, coastal and environmental science, and even policy around how we recover from natural disasters.

Sitting at the northwestern edge of North America, Alaska stretches across a vast Arctic land of wilderness, culture, and wealth beneath the surface. Among its resources is the Donlin Gold deposit, located in southwestern Alaska's Kuskokwim River basin. As one of the world's largest undeveloped gold mines, it holds an estimated 39 million ounces worth more than $170 billion at today's prices.

As climate change intensifies drought conditions across the Southwest, researchers at The University of New Mexico are examining how agricultural water is used in one of New Mexico's most critical river systems.

A new international study published in Nature Geoscience reveals that dark brown carbon from wildfires exerts a powerful warming effect on the global climate—potentially matching or even exceeding that of black carbon in the visible spectrum.

Reducing methane emissions will slow climate change but could also slow the recovery of the stratospheric ozone layer, new research from the University of Reading shows.

Using old satellite radar techniques, scientists have developed a new way of measuring the true extent of an understudied and crucial region of the Antarctic sea-ice system for the first time. The Marginal Ice Zone (MIZ) around Antarctica is the "outer edge" of the sea ice, forming a nearly 200-kilometer-wide ring of ice floes affected by waves from the extremely rough Southern Ocean.

A new study published in the journal Nature Geoscience by researchers at the IBS Center for Climate Physics (ICCP) at Pusan National University in South Korea shows that the Antarctic ice sheet became more sensitive to climate forcing following a major shift in Earth's ice age cycles about one million years ago, providing new insight into how ice sheets respond to long-term climate change.

Hailstorms can be incredibly dangerous, posing risks to life and property. Then there's the economic damage to cars, crops, and infrastructure caused by large balls of ice falling at high speed from the sky. And the problems could worsen as our planet heats up.

From Australia's remote deserts to the surface of Mars, geological mapping underpins how we understand landscapes, natural resources, and the processes that shape our planet and others beyond it.

Nearly 50 years ago, a puzzling earthquake beneath northern Utah jolted scientists' understanding of how Earth works. Now, research from the University of Utah confirms that the mysterious event was real, and part of a rare class of earthquakes occurring far deeper beneath the continental crust than scientists once believed possible.

A decade ago, Bradley Markle, an assistant professor at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado Boulder, noticed an odd pattern while sifting through temperature records from the end of the last ice age in Antarctica. The records seemed to defy prevailing theories of how temperatures vary across the Antarctic continent.

An international team of scientists has demonstrated how powerful thunderstorm complexes over the U.S. Corn Belt are fueled by moisture rising from the region's fertile fields or just beneath them. The findings can lead to better and longer-term weather forecasts for this critical farming area as well as giving researchers new insights into improving computer models needed to better understand atmospheric processes.