Phys.org: Earth science

People along the densely populated Pacific coasts are exposed to strongly fluctuating rainfall patterns: In East Asia, heavy rain falls in summer, and flooding is already one of the climate risks in this region today. The western U.S., on the other hand, is often hit by extreme drought in summer, and the question of how much precipitation the winter will bring is fundamental to appropriate preventive measures.

Mountain snowpacks accumulate snow throughout the winter, building up stores of water that will supply communities across the American West throughout the long dry season.

An international team of geoscientists, marine geologists, climatologists, and environmental specialists has found that lingering El Niño events have increased in frequency over the past 7,000 years. In their study published in Nature Geoscience, the group analyzed oxygen isotopes trapped in Pacific Ocean corals and used the findings to create a simulation showing occurrences of El Niño events and their lengths over time.

A simulation on the origin and evolution of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) has been conducted by a PKU research team led by Nie Ji, Associate Professor of the School of Physics; and Hu Yongyun, Dean of the Institute of Ocean Research, along with a research team from National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Researchers have discovered that the underside of the North American continent is dripping away in blobs of rock—and that the remnants of a tectonic plate sinking in Earth's mantle may be the reason why.

A research group led by Associate Professor Kohei Mizobata, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, including researchers from the National Institute of Polar Research, the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, and the Institute of Low Temperature Science (Hokkaido University), has found that enhanced westerly winds associated with global warming will strengthen the clockwise circulations and transport heat to the ice sheet in the East Antarctic coastal area.

Rivers join downstream, flow downhill, and eventually meet an ocean or terminal lake: These are fundamental rules of how waterways and basins are supposed to work. But rules are made to be broken. In the journal Water Resources Research, Sowby and Siegel lay out nine rivers and lakes in the Americas that defy hydrologic expectations.

A study of tree rings in the Gaspesie's Sainte-Anne River area reveals that snowpacks have been declining noticeably in the region's mountains for nearly nine decades. The researchers say the phenomenon is directly linked to global warming.

New projections by the UNSW Institute for Climate Risk & Response (ICRR) reveal a 4°C rise in global temperatures would cut world GDP by around 40% by 2100—a stark increase from previous estimates of around 11%.

A combination of water management practices has contributed to notable groundwater gains in Central Arizona despite the region dealing with long-term water stress, according to a study led by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and collaborators in Arizona and Colorado.

Landslides pose a significant threat to people and the environment worldwide. Researchers from the Leibniz Center for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), together with international partners, have developed a new framework that significantly improves landslide prediction using machine learning methods.

Recent "unprecedented" floods are not exceptional if we look further into the past, new research shows.

In the first study to consider the long-term evolution of the rivers that flow beneath glaciers, researchers have new insights into the future of Antarctica's melting ice that may change the way climate scientists predict the effects of a warming planet.

A University of Otago—Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka-led study is developing innovative methods to accurately predict how ice sheets and glaciers are deforming and moving.

Plate temperature and water release can explain the occurrence of different types of earthquakes in Guerrera, Mexico. A Kobe University simulation study has also shown that the shape of the Cocos Plate is responsible for a gap where earthquakes haven't occurred for more than a century. The results are important for accurate earthquake prediction models in the region.

A pair of marine scientists at the University of Antwerp, in Belgium, working with a colleague from the University of Otago, in New Zealand, have found that simulations they created showed that trawling and dredging impact the processes behind natural ocean alkalinity production.

One of the ocean currents in the Arctic Ocean is at risk of disappearing this century because of climate change, according to a new joint study from the University of Gothenburg and the German Alfred Wegener Institute. As a result, the North Atlantic could be flooded with freshwater, which would weaken the global ocean circulation.

Scientists know that streams and rivers can contribute significant quantities of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. One way these bodies of water come to contain greenhouse gases is via groundwater, which picks up carbon and nitrogen as it seeps and flows through rock and sediment near rivers.

Devastating floods reshaped southern Brazil's landscape in May 2024. Rio Grande do Sul—the fifth most populous state in Brazil—was hit with unprecedented rainfall, affecting 2.3 million people. A new study led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) published in Geophysical Research Letters uses satellite data to help uncover what caused the deluges and examine how it impacted some of the state's most vulnerable residents.

Experts say that the devastating earthquake in Myanmar on Friday was likely the strongest to hit the country in decades, with disaster modeling suggesting thousands could be dead.