Phys.org: Earth science

New research published in the journal Environmental Research Letters reveals that artisan gold mining in the southern Peruvian Amazon has caused more destruction to carbon-rich peatlands in the past two years than in the previous three decades combined, posing a serious threat to the environment and climate.

The mass extinction that ended the Permian geological epoch, 252 million years ago, wiped out most animals living on Earth. Huge volcanoes erupted, releasing 100,000 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This destabilized the climate and the carbon cycle, leading to dramatic global warming, deoxygenated oceans, and mass extinction.

Pressure on the International Seabed Authority (ISA) to finalize and adopt regulations for deep-sea mining is increasing. While some ISA member states are hoping to see progress soon, a growing number of states are demanding more time to research the environmental impact of mining raw materials on the seabed and to develop an appropriate regulatory framework. What are the legal forms such a delay could take and what would the political consequences be?

Ventilation is an important process within the global ocean, where waters sink to deeper layers, are transported by deep currents, and eventually get upwelled back to the surface. This process affects the distribution of oxygen and carbon in the global ocean by transporting these elements from the surface to deeper regions of the ocean.

Using a unique field site in the Negev, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev geologists have presented the first-ever time-dependent record of drainage divide migration rates. Prof. Liran Goren, her student Elhanan Harel, and co-authors from the University of Pittsburgh and the Geological Survey of Israel, further demonstrate that episodes of rapid divide migration coincide with past climate changes in the Negev over the last 230,000 years (unrelated to present-day climate change).

Late last year, a massive ocean swell caused by a low pressure system in the North Pacific generated waves up to 20 meters high, and damaged coastlines and property thousands of kilometers from its source.

An international team of scientists has synchronized key climate records from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to unravel the sequence of events during the last million years before the extinction of the dinosaurs at the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary. For the first time, these new high-resolution geochemical records reveal when and how two major eruption phases of gigantic flood basalt volcanism had an impact on climate and biota in the late Maastrichtian era 66 to 67 million years ago.

It is widely believed that Earth's atmosphere has been rich in oxygen for about 2.5 billion years due to a relatively rapid increase in microorganisms capable of performing photosynthesis. Researchers, including those from the University of Tokyo, provide a mechanism to explain precursor oxygenation events, or "whiffs," which may have opened the door for this to occur.

We have discovered the oldest meteorite impact crater on Earth, in the very heart of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The crater formed more than 3.5 billion years ago, making it the oldest known by more than a billion years. Our discovery is published today in Nature Communications.

A new systematic review has revealed serious shortcomings in the evaluation of cyclone risk in Australia and worldwide. The research, which analyzed 94 studies on cyclone risk, warns that existing approaches may be failing to provide a full picture of the dangers communities face.

Sulfate-reducing bacteria break down a large proportion of the organic carbon in the oxygen-free zones of Earth, and in the seabed in particular. Among these important microbes, the Desulfobacteraceae family of bacteria stands out because its members are able to break down a wide variety of compounds—including some that are poorly degradable—to their end product, carbon dioxide (CO2).

It's a cold winter morning in the bleak and bare arable fields of the East Anglian fens. At the edge of a field, a scientist dips a long pole into a ditch. So, what is a climate researcher doing here?

In 2011, as Cyclone Yasi approached the Queensland coast, I sat in my home in the tropical far north of the state and worried what the future would hold. Would my family be OK? Would our home be destroyed? Would my workplace be damaged and my job uncertain? Would my community be devastated?

People in southeast Queensland and northern NSW have spent days racing to prepare their homes ahead of Tropical Cyclone Alfred, now expected to make landfall over several hours on Saturday.

The OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 captured an image of Kachemak Bay's turbid, cloudy waters on September 20, 2024. This cloudiness comes from glacial flour: bits of pulverized rock ground down by glaciers that has the consistency of flour.

How tiny plastic particles enter the atmosphere is an important question, as airborne microplastics are a potential health threat. Using a global chemical transport model, researchers have provided evidence that, contrary to previous claims, the ocean is not a major source of microplastics to the atmosphere, but a significant sink.

Researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory have discovered that cosmic-ray showers seem to play a pivotal role in triggering lightning flashes. The research is published in the journal JGR Atmospheres.

A first-of-its-kind study led by William & Mary's Batten School & VIMS is predicting estuaries along the East Coast of the U.S. will experience marine heat wave conditions for up to a third of the year by the end of the century. With estuaries serving as important nursery habitats for nearly 75% of all fish species and supporting more than 54 million jobs, this could have devastating consequences for marine ecosystems as well as the fisheries and communities that depend on them.

A swarm of earth tremors and fears of volcanic eruptions in January forced tens of thousands of people to move away from Awash Fentale, an area in the Afar region of Ethiopia. The area falls within a geologically active region of the Great Rift Valley that has experienced a number of earthquakes and volcanic events in the last 800 years. Two major volcanic eruptions occurred in 1250 and 1820 AD.

A new study published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences sheds light on the complex relationship between methane emissions and the recovery of the stratospheric ozone layer. The research underscores how future increases in methane emissions could significantly influence ozone recovery, particularly in the polar regions.