Phys.org: Earth science

The greater Los Angeles area has long been the subject of intense seismographic monitoring. A network of highly sensitive seismometers peppers the region on a constant vigil for earthquakes.

Regional pollution is speeding up snow melt in the Indian Himalayas. That's according to a new study from an international group of scientists including Indian Institute of Technology Madras civil engineering Ph.D. student Amit Singh Chandel and Karl Rittger, research associate at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) at the University of Colorado Boulder.

A volcano near Alaska's most populous city is showing signs it could be headed toward an eruption, officials said.

Extreme fire seasons in recent years highlight the urgent need to better understand wildfires within the broader context of climate change. Under climate change, many drivers of wildfires are expected to change, such as the amount of carbon stored in vegetation, rainfall, and lightning strikes.

A new study published in Communications Earth & Environment gives possible insight into the underprediction of sea ice depletion and the formation of Arctic cyclones. Led by Steven Cavallo, a professor in the School of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma, the study could lead to more accurate weather and climate models and better forecasting of Arctic cyclones.

A research team led by Prof. An Zhisheng and Prof. Zhou Weijian from the Institute of Earth Environment of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) developed an innovative approach to examining the contrasting hydroclimate impacts of summer monsoons and westerly circulation in the hyper-arid Asian interior since the middle Holocene.

Fewer wildfires burn in North American forests today than in previous centuries, increasing the risk of more severe wildfires, according to research published in Nature Communications. The findings may seem counterintuitive, but frequent low-lying surface fires often maintain balance in forests by reducing fuel sources across large areas.

A research team from the Aerospace Information Research Institute (AIR) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a new framework to evaluate soil moisture stations' spatial representativeness globally. Their study found that about 63% of existing soil moisture observation stations reliably reflect conditions at the satellite pixel scale.

Researchers have generated the first dataset of water flow beneath the entire Antarctic Ice Sheet, which will lead to more accurate projections of sea level rise. The findings are published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

A team of geologists and mineral physicists at Harvard University, the University of California, Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago has found evidence via lab experiments that show the Earth's mantle is far more complex than previously known.

Extreme precipitation events in Antarctica, which are mostly dominated by snowfall due to sub-zero temperatures, also include rainfall, according to new research.

A windy, dusty day can ruin your new car wash and leave you with grit in your mouth and dirt on your floors. But a new study in the journal Nature Sustainability, published by researchers at The University of Texas at El Paso, George Mason University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, estimates that the societal costs of blowing dust and wind erosion go far beyond personal inconvenience, totaling approximately $154 billion per year across the United States.

About 400 kilometers northwest of Sydney, just south of Dubbo, lies a large and interesting body of rock formed around 215 million years ago by erupting volcanoes.

A new study has given key insights into South Australia's coastal management by examining how Cape Dombey's rocky headland in Robe on the state's Limestone Coast influences waves, currents and sand movement.

The world's largest known lithium deposit exists within a vast salt pan called the Salar de Uyuni, which stretches for thousands of square miles atop a high, dry Andean plateau in Bolivia. For most of the year, salt crystals encrust the terrain, white as confectioner's sugar. During the wet season, pooling rainwater mirrors the surrounding mountains and sky.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are known to be contaminants originating in industrial processes and materials, as well as a reason for substandard indoor air, but they are also formed in nature, including wetlands, forests, volcanoes and hydrothermal vents.

Scientists at Yale and in Singapore have devised what may be the ultimate acid test—a comprehensive model for estimating the origins of Earth's habitability, based in part on ocean acidity.

Greenland's ice sheet currently spans over 1.7 million square kilometers and is the largest freshwater reservoir in the northern hemisphere. The ice sheet has already lost over a trillion tonnes of its total mass since the 1980s, with melting rates six times higher in the last decade. Indeed, a recent study found that an average of 30 million tonnes of ice is now being lost every hour.

The rapid melting and thinning of the Arctic ice has sparked serious concerns in the scientific community. In addition, sea ice thickness has also decreased, which makes ice cover more vulnerable to warming air and ocean temperatures.

Tracking and predicting sea level rise involves more than measuring the height of our oceans: Land along coastlines also inches up and down in elevation. Using California as a case study, a NASA-led team has shown how seemingly modest vertical land motion could significantly impact local sea levels in coming decades.