Phys.org: Earth science

In the remote and hostile realm of the Amundsen Sea Embayment, West Antarctica, powerful winds known as low-level jets (LLJs) race over its coastal regions, including both the Thwaites and Pine Island ice shelves and the open ocean. These previously unknown atmospheric forces could hold the key to understanding—and predicting—the alarming melt of two critical glaciers: Pine Island and Thwaites, the latter ominously called the "Doomsday Glacier" for its potential to unleash catastrophic sea-level rise.

Several key moments in Earth's history help us humans answer the question "How did we get here?" These moments also shed light on the question "Where are we going?" and offer scientists deeper insight into how organisms adapt to physical and chemical changes in their environment.

During the final week of summer in 2021, Hurricane Ida emerged from the Gulf of Mexico, turned almost directly northeast and swept through the South en route to Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

A new study with ETH Zurich finds that if global warming exceeds the Paris Climate Agreement targets, the non-polar glacier mass will diminish significantly. However, if warming is limited to 1.5°C, at least 54% could be preserved—more than twice as much ice as in a 2.7°C scenario.

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) serves as the Atlantic Ocean's conveyor belt, transporting warm water north toward the Arctic Circle and returning cold, dense water back to the tropics. Nearshore areas off Greenland are critical sites in AMOC, influencing the redistribution of heat and nutrients around the world.

Earthquakes create ripple effects in Earth's upper atmosphere that can disrupt satellite communications and navigation systems we rely on. Nagoya University scientists and their collaborators have used Japan's extensive network of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers to create the first 3D images of atmospheric disturbances caused by the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake.

The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, commonly referred to as the "AMOC," is a system of ocean currents confined to the Atlantic basin that plays a crucial role in regulating Earth's climate by transporting heat from the Southern to the Northern Hemisphere. The AMOC also modulates regional weather, from the mild summers in Europe to the monsoon seasons in Africa and India.

Replanting forests can help cool the planet even more than some scientists once believed, especially in the tropics. But even if every tree lost since the mid-19th century is replanted, the total effect won't cancel out human-generated warming. Cutting emissions remains essential.

A research team utilized teleseismic double-difference tomography technology to uncover the morphological changes of the Pacific subducting slab in the mantle transition zone beneath Northeast China.

The butterfly effect suggests that small changes in a system can have a large impact on eventual outcomes. One metaphor used to illustrate this concept is a butterfly flapping its wings only to cause a hurricane across the ocean. While meteorologists' current cause-and-effect understanding of weather isn't this granular, researchers are actively investigating how changes in temperature, rainfall, wind patterns, etc. can impact weather phenomena halfway across the world.

A recent study led by Prof. Chen Yaning from the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (XIEG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has released the Tianshan watershed streamflow (TSWS) dataset (1901–2019). The dataset compiles daily streamflow data for 56 watersheds and monthly data for 89 watersheds in the Tianshan Mountains.

The 120-mile Tijuana River flows from Baja California into the United States and discharges millions of gallons of wastewater—including sewage, industrial waste and runoff—into the Pacific Ocean every day, making it the dominant source of coastal pollution in the region.

Water reshapes Earth through slow, powerful erosion, carving intricate landscapes like caves and pinnacles in soluble rocks such as limestone. An international team from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw, the University of Florida, and the Institute of Earth Sciences in Orléans has discovered that vertical channels, known as karstic solution pipes, preserve a record of Earth's climatic history.

In the Atlantic Ocean, a system of currents carries vast amounts of warm, salty surface water northward. As this water reaches higher latitudes and becomes colder, it sinks and joins a deep, southward return flow. This cycle, known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), plays an important role in Earth's climate as it redistributes heat, nutrients, and carbon through the ocean.

Organic particles that settle on the seabed ensure CO2 stays locked. However, natural gel-like substances slow down this process. Such microscale mechanisms play a crucial role in enhancing climate predictions.

As the Colorado River's giant reservoirs have declined during the last two decades, even larger amounts of water have been pumped and drained from underground, according to new research based on data from NASA satellites.

Below ocean wind farms, oil rigs and other offshore installations are mammoth networks of underwater structures, including pipelines, anchors, risers and cables, that are essential to harnessing the energy source. But much like terrestrial structures, these subsea constructions are also vulnerable to natural events, like submarine landslides, that can hamper the productivity of installations below the sea.

Marine life plays a pivotal role in Earth's carbon cycle. Phytoplankton at the base of the aquatic food web take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, convert it to organic carbon, and move it around as they become food for other organisms. Much of this carbon eventually returns to the atmosphere, but some ends up sequestered in the deep ocean via a process called carbon export.

Predicting the extent of Arctic sea ice in September has significant implications for climate change and shipping in the Arctic. However, seasonal forecasts for September sea ice often encounter a challenge known as the "spring predictability barrier."

Ozone pollution is a global environmental concern that not only threatens human health and crop production, but also worsens global warming. While the formation of ozone is often attributed to anthropogenic pollutants, soil emissions are revealed to be another important source.