Phys.org: Earth science

An international team of Earth scientists led by Utrecht professor Douwe van Hinsbergen has developed an online tool that allows you to see, for any given location on Earth, what latitude it occupied in the distant past, right back to the heyday of the supercontinent Pangea 320 million years ago. The work has been published in PLOS One.

A new study led by the University of Oxford and ETH Zurich reveals that a key part of the climate system—the large-scale wind patterns that determine where rain falls—can be underestimated by current climate models, helping explain why forecasts of regional rainfall remain uncertain. Ultimately, this insight could enable more confident projections of future rainfall patterns, supporting better preparation for floods and droughts.

How much of the essential trace element iron remains available for marine life in the ocean depends critically on the diversity of organic molecules in seawater, according to new research published in Nature Communications by an international team led by Dr. Martha Gledhill from GEOMAR.

Researchers including a number from the University of Exeter, have identified the most urgent unanswered questions about peatlands, providing a global roadmap to guide future science and policy for one of the planet's most important and threatened ecosystems. The paper, "Priority research questions in global peatland science," is published in Communications Earth & Environment.

Climate scientists like to keep their accounting books neat and balanced. As climate change alters energy flows all across the planet, which in turn causes effects like sea level rise, ice melt and more, keeping close track of these changes is important for an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon of climate alteration as well as how it will play out in the future.

A rare dataset collected by instruments at the point where Antarctica's largest ice shelf begins to float reveals ocean processes that drive melting at this critical part of the continent.

Atmospheric dust plays a dual role in Earth's climate: it reflects some sunlight back into space while also absorbing and retaining the planet's heat like an insulating blanket. But while dust likely cools the planet overall, that's not the whole story. New UCLA research shows that the heat-trapping effect of airborne desert dust in the atmosphere is about twice as big as previously believed.

A new decades-long study of oceanographic data provides the first evidence that deep-ocean heat has moved closer to Antarctica, threatening the fragile ice shelves that fringe the continent.

In the middle of the Antarctic winter, during months of darkness when temperatures often dip below −30°C, the continent warmed dramatically. In July and August 2024, temperatures in parts of East Antarctica rose by up to 28°C above average and stayed high for more than two weeks. To put that in perspective, a similar anomaly in the UK would push January temperatures into the mid-30°Cs.

The Hayward fault, part of the larger San Andreas fault system, runs 74 miles through the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. The fault is overdue for an earthquake that could cause extensive damage to such a dense population zone.

Rivers worldwide are under severe stress: they are warming, losing oxygen, and as a result emitting increasing amounts of greenhouse gases. Researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have now quantified these global trends over a period of more than two decades. Their results show that rising temperatures and anthropogenic land use are fundamentally transforming river systems, with serious consequences for the climate. The findings have been published in Global Change Biology.

A Florida International University student has exposed a hidden driver of coastal flooding, and it could help improve warning systems for entire communities. Earth and Environment Ph.D. student Dafrosa Kataraihya's latest research, published in Natural Hazards, shows that winds hundreds of miles away are a culprit of coastal flooding.

Changes in nutrient dynamics caused by rising water temperatures and altered stratification patterns due to climate change are promoting the growth of harmful algal blooms. This is the outcome of a new long-term study led by the University of Bayreuth and conducted in the Franconian Lake District. The researchers report their findings in the journal Water Resources Research.

Antonio has spent the past seven years running toward fires that most others run from. A firefighter in the Brazilian Amazon since 2019, he works inside the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve, one of the most biodiverse places on Earth. But things are changing, and fast. "2024 was the most extreme year for fires," Antonio said. "I had never seen anything like it. The forest burned like dry pasture—it was frightening for those of us who risk our lives to protect it."

The conversion of Brazil's native biomes into agricultural areas has resulted in an estimated loss of 1.4 billion tons of soil carbon. This amount is equal to the emission of 5.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) equivalent, a unit of measurement used to standardize the emission of different greenhouse gases, and was calculated based on data collected from studies conducted over the past 30 years.

Venice has coexisted with the sea throughout its 1,500-year history, perhaps better than any other city on Earth. Yet over the past century it has flooded increasingly often, as the sea rises and the city itself sinks under its own weight.

A study led by Wageningen University & Research shows that human interventions have significantly changed tides in river estuaries over the past centuries. In many regions around the world, the difference between high and low tide has increased, and the tidal wave is moving inland faster. These changes often appear to have a greater impact than the effects of sea-level rise.

Imagine your favorite sunny beach. Anywhere will do. You look out and see the ocean stretching to the horizon. To a glaciologist, that view is not just water; it's melted ice. Our new study shows that the best case sea-level rise scenarios may now be out of reach. The work is published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences.

Thousands of slips in Tairāwhiti in January. The loss of eight lives in the Bay of Plenty later that month. And, days ago, landslides that damaged homes, forced evacuations and blocked roads across the North Island.

The South Asian summer monsoon sustains billions of people today. For a long time, the prevailing scientific view has held that the formation and intensification of the South Asian summer monsoon were primarily controlled by the rapid uplift of the Tibetan Plateau. However, geological records present a long-standing puzzle from the Early to Middle Miocene (25 to 15 million years ago): the South Asian monsoon rainfall was remarkably strong, even though the Somali Jet—the primary wind system transporting moisture—was relatively weak.