Phys.org: Earth science

Ephemeral desert rivers known as wadis—lifelines for biodiversity and water in some of the world's driest landscapes—are being dangerously constricted by human activity, new research has found.

A new study published in the journal Nature Communications by researchers from the IBS Center for Climate Physics (ICCP) at Pusan National University in the Republic of Korea reveals that global warming is accelerating the risk of multi-year droughts that can lead to extreme water scarcity, threatening water demands in cities, agriculture, and livelihoods worldwide, already within the coming decades.

University of Nebraska–Lincoln's S. Kathleen Lyons is providing a new framework—Earth system engineering—for examining how organisms, including humans, have fundamentally altered ecosystems on a global scale across hundreds, thousands or millions of years.

Andean glaciers advanced during an acute period of climate change at the end of the last Ice Age, new research has found.

Australia's worrying future under climate change was laid bare last week when the first National Climate Risk Assessment was released. It revealed extreme heat, fires, floods, droughts and coastal inundation already threatens lives and livelihoods—and will wreak further havoc in coming decades.

As the frequency and intensity of heat waves increase across the U.S., a similar but more striking phenomenon is occurring in American rivers.

Is your city prepared for flooding caused by extreme rainfall under climate change? In many regions, the uncertainty surrounding this threat is a major cause for concern and an obstacle to adaptation. However, according to researchers from Japan, their new statistical method increases the accuracy of flood risk projections across about 70% of Earth's landmass.

The Dadiwan Culture, a key representative of China's Neolithic period in the Yellow River Basin and considered one of the origins of the Yangshao Culture, experienced a mysterious 500-year gap between its first and second phases, according to new research.

"Atmospheric rivers" are large-scale extreme weather systems that are making headlines more frequently. When viewed in satellite images, they appear just as described—like rivers in the sky. Though they are often reported in places like California, these weather systems have the potential to bring high heat and dump disastrous amounts of precipitation on areas throughout the mid and high latitudes.

Ice can dissolve iron minerals more effectively than liquid water, according to a new study from Umeå University. The discovery could help explain why many Arctic rivers are now turning rusty orange as permafrost thaws in a warming climate.

Earth's mantle is a restless, enigmatic engine that powers volcanism, recycles crust, and regulates the long-term evolution of the planet. But one of its most elusive characteristics—the redox state, or the balance of oxidized and reduced chemical species—remains difficult to measure directly.

Satellite observations have documented a pronounced decline in Antarctic sea ice extent since 2014, with especially sharp losses in recent years. Whether Antarctica's declining sea ice can recover hinges not only on how much carbon dioxide we emit, but also on how stratified the Southern Ocean is, according to new research published in Geophysical Research Letters.

A new study has made a counterintuitive discovery about how El Niño affects India's summer monsoon. Instead of reducing rainfall overall and causing widespread droughts, the periodic climatic phenomenon increases rainfall daily in the country's wettest regions.

Deep in the heart of Central Asia, the Kunlun Mountains form a vital barrier on the northern Tibetan Plateau. Their rainfall is a lifeline, feeding the oases and rivers of the arid Tarim Basin. While scientists have mapped the region's basic climate patterns, one question remained: what drives the large year-to-year swings in summer rainfall here?

Earthquakes don't just shake the ground, they can also shift rivers, damage stop banks and raise the risk of flooding for years afterward.

Buried deep in Greenland's ice sheet lies a puzzling chemical signature that has sparked intense scientific debate. A sharp spike in platinum concentrations, discovered in an ice core (a cylinder of ice drilled out of ice sheets and glaciers) and dated to around 12,800 years ago, has provided support for a hypothesis that Earth was struck by an exotic meteorite or comet at that time.

On May 12, 2025, Buddha Day, Buddhist monks and scientific researchers gathered to pay tribute to Yala Glacier in Nepal's Langtang Valley. The International Center for Mountain Development (ICIMOD), an international NGO housed in Kathmandu, collaborated with local Indigenous community leaders to organize this event to raise awareness of Yala's rapid retreat and highlight the risk across Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) glaciers. They invited community leaders, local university professors and international media to the tribute, which included a central ceremony held by spiritual leaders.

An international research team led by the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel has discovered a globally unique system on the seabed off the coast of Papua New Guinea. During their expedition aboard the research vessel SONNE, they came across the "Karambusel" field, where hydrothermal vents and methane seeps occur immediately adjacent to one another.

Hidden beneath the biggest ice mass on Earth, hundreds of subglacial lakes form a crucial part of Antarctica's icy structure, affecting the movement and stability of glaciers, and consequentially influencing global sea level rise.

Earlier in 2025, UNSW Sydney Ph.D. candidate Christina Schmidt submitted her thesis—from the deck of Australia's multi-billion-dollar icebreaker, just off the East Antarctic coast.