A study conducted by UC Santa Barbara researchers and collaborators has found that California has lost more than half of its coastal dune systems. The researchers' assessment—the first of its kind for the California coast—estimates that 60% of dune systems that existed from 1850 have been lost, due to a combination of urban development, land-use changes and erosion.
A study led by the EPFL suggests that shipping emissions influence climate-relevant cloud formation and may affect regional climate processes far beyond the polar region.
Forest fires now burn 10 times more acreage annually than in 1985, while wildfire severity has gotten even worse. In California, 30 times more acreage burned from high-severity, forest-killing fires, according to new UCLA research.
The number of people exposed to dangerous heat stress worldwide has risen sharply over the past half-century, propelled by climate change, according to a study released Monday as Europe sweltered through a punishing heat wave.
The Caspian Sea, the largest inland body of water on Earth, is shrinking. Not fluctuating, not entering another natural cycle, but shrinking.
"What goes on in Antarctica doesn't stay in Antarctica—it has global implications," Geology tauira Natalie-Jane Reid says. Reid is one of two Otago Ph.D. candidates who contributed to an Antarctic sediment core workshop at the Otago Repository for Core Analysis (ORCA) held during the first two weeks of June. The pair joined 30 top scientists who split, scanned, described and analyzed 228 meters (748 feet) of ancient mud and rock retrieved from under the ice sheet at Crary Ice Rise in Antarctica's Ross Sea.
Author(s): Y. Z. Han, K. G. Zhao, Z. Y. Li, Y. X. Liu, C. Xue, J. W. Li, Z. Chen, J. Q. Dong, J. F. Wu, L. F. Wang, and W. Y. Zhang
Hydrodynamic instabilities seeded by isolated internal defects remain a critical performance-limiting factor in inertial confinement fusion experiments. Here we extend the concept of dynamic stabilization via temporally modulated laser pulses from the main drive [K. G. Zhao et al., Phys. Rev. E 109,…
[Phys. Rev. E 113, 065211] Published Mon Jun 22, 2026
SummaryDuring the Early Medieval Ages, unusually strong and rapid geomagnetic field variations have been reported in several European regions; however, archeomagnetic data from Central Europe remain scarce. To help filling this gap, we present new archeointensity results from eight archeological sites in Germany, Austria, and Poland, dated between 500 and 1200 AD. The investigated materials mainly consist of potsherds, together with two in situ baked clay structures that also provided archeodirectional information. Archeointensities were determined using the MT4 protocol, a Thellier-type technique including cooling-rate and anisotropy corrections. For two sites, the multi-specimen domain-state-corrected paleointensity protocol was additionally applied. Rock magnetic experiments indicate that the main remanence carriers are low-coercivity magnetite and high-coercivity ε-maghemite and hematite. The presence of these phases suggests incomplete transformation to hematite during firing. To further assess the archeointensity determinations, the Bias Corrected Estimation of Paleointensity (BiCEP) method was applied, particularly for specimens showing curved Arai plots. This analysis confirmed the reliability of the Thellier results for most investigated structures, whereas no reliable BiCEP outcome could be obtained for one structure from Chobienia (Poland). For four structures, the classical Arai plot evaluation agrees with the BiCEP results and, for one site, also with the independently obtained multi-specimen results. In another case, the comparison between Thellier and BiCEP estimates allowed a more realistic assessment of intensity uncertainty. One site mean value (~ 50 µT) around 600 AD yields a lower geomagnetic field intensity than other contemporaneous European records. Overall, the data suggest an increase in field intensity between 600 and 800 AD, with values becoming more consistent with previously published regional results after this period. However, given the relatively large uncertainties and the still limited number of available studies, additional archeointensity data from 500-800 AD are needed to determine whether the observed regional differences reflect genuine geomagnetic field heterogeneity during this period. Furthermore, new chronological constraints were obtained through archeomagnetic dating approaches applied to the two available full-vector records.
El Niño, characterized by warmer-than-normal water temperatures in parts of the equatorial Pacific, made its return in June 2026. Observations of sea surface height from the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite that month indicated that the 2026 event was continuing to strengthen.
In the quest to create a robust supply chain of rare earth elements necessary for the clean energy revolution and everyday modern conveniences, North America has enough deposits of sufficient quality to begin looking in its own backyard, according to a University of Michigan study published in Resources, Conservation and Recycling.
On May 8, 2026, satellites detected signs of an unexpected submarine volcanic eruption in the Bismarck Sea near the islands of Papua New Guinea. Over the next several weeks, plumes of steam and ash streamed over the sea, and areas of discolored water surrounded the eruption site. Relatively little is known about the ocean floor in this area or the volcanic feature that is presently erupting. But experts think the new activity, ongoing as of mid-June, might be occurring along the Titan Ridge and has the potential to form an ephemeral new island.
Scientists predict that the next three to five decades provide a critical window to anticipate and plan for Antarctic ice loss and its contribution to sea level rise. Research published in Nature, led by Monash University researcher Dr. Felicity McCormack from Securing Antarctica's Environmental Future (SAEF), looks at the predictability of Antarctic ice loss and what this means for sea level rise projections.
Can tiny aerosol particles make tropical convective clouds grow stronger? For decades, scientists have debated this question because aerosols can change how cloud droplets form, grow and release latent heat. One proposed pathway, known as condensational aerosol convective invigoration, requires clouds to contain high water-vapor supersaturation. Under such conditions, adding aerosol particles can create many new droplets, enhance condensation, release additional latent heat and potentially strengthen convective updrafts.
In 2011, Japan reeled from the effects of a devastating magnitude 9.0 earthquake. But unnoticed in the chaos resulting from the quake, its major aftershocks and the tsunami it caused, something strange happened. About 16 minutes after the earthquake, but before the aftershocks hit, Japan's GPS stations registered an eastward lurch—across the entire country—but unconnected to any specific quake or aftershock.
Soils that are exposed to prolonged drought often develop desiccation cracks, which impact soil properties and exacerbate moisture loss through evapotranspiration. Now, a study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign examines the evolution of soil cracking and how cracks interact with storage and movement of water in the soil. The findings can help improve hydrological models essential for water management. The research is published in the journal Soil and Tillage Research.
Publication date: Available online 17 June 2026
Source: Advances in Space Research
Author(s): Jiaqi Liu, Xiucong Sun, Li Deng, Ming Xu
Publication date: Available online 17 June 2026
Source: Advances in Space Research
Author(s): Xiaofeng Zhao, Guosheng Li, Weiwei Cai, Leping Yang
Publication date: Available online 17 June 2026
Source: Advances in Space Research
Author(s): Erdem Turan, Stefano Speretta, Eberhard Gill
Publication date: Available online 17 June 2026
Source: Advances in Space Research
Author(s): Luis Soto-Mardones, Asbel Itahí de la Cruz-Ruiz, T.Leticia Espinosa-Carreón, Jushiro Cepeda-Morales, Mauro W. Santiago-García
