Phys.org: Earth science

It's no secret that Florida's iconic coral reefs are in trouble. Repeated body blows from hurricanes, pollution, disease, climate change—and a near-knockout punch from a 2023 marine heat wave—has effectively wiped several species off the map and shrunk the reefs that stretch from the Keys throughout South Florida.

For decades, researchers thought that an October 1843 earthquake on the small Greek island of Chalke caused a powerful tsunami and led to the deaths of as many as 600 people. But a new analysis of primary accounts of the event by Ioanna Triantafyllou at Hellenic Mediterranean University suggests the truth was much less dramatic and destructive.

Greenland, which has been prominently in the news in recent days, hosts a vast ice sheet. If it melts, it will become one of the largest contributors to global sea-level rise. Under a high-emissions scenario, the Greenland Ice Sheet is expected to largely disappear over time, with far-reaching consequences. This is the conclusion of a new study by Chloë Paice and colleagues, published in The Cryosphere. The Greenland Ice Sheet contains enough ice to raise global sea levels by approximately 7.4 meters and has been losing mass at an accelerating rate since the 1990s. Roughly half of this loss is due to surface melt, while the other half results from ice calving where the ice sheet meets the ocean.

Organic matter carried in rivers to the Russian part of the Arctic Ocean may be creating more clouds and keeping the region cooler, a new study has found.

Our planet is unique for its ability to sustain abundant life. From studies of the rock record, scientists believe life had already emerged on Earth at least 3.5 billion years ago and probably much earlier.

A new global study shows that increasing soil salinity is systematically reshaping the storage and distribution of soil inorganic carbon (SIC), a key but often-overlooked part of terrestrial ecosystems. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on January 20, provide the first comprehensive global assessment of how soil salinization influences inorganic carbon storage and highlight its implications for the global carbon cycle.

Beneath Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf lies one of the least measured oceans on Earth—a vast, dark cavity roughly twice the volume of the North Sea.

La Niña—a climate phenomenon characterized by unusually cool sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean—can persist for multiple years, exerting significant climate impacts worldwide. In recent decades, such prolonged La Niña events have grown more frequent. However, the mechanisms that sustain these multiyear cooling episodes have remained unclear.

A 66 million-year-old mystery behind how our planet transformed from a tropical greenhouse to the ice-capped world of today has been unraveled by scientists. Their new study has revealed that Earth's massive drop in temperature after the dinosaurs went extinct could have been caused by a large decrease in calcium levels in the ocean.

The asteroid that struck the Earth 66 million years ago devastated life across the planet, wiping out the dinosaurs and other organisms in a hail of fire and catastrophic climate change. But new research shows that it also set the stage for life to rebound astonishingly quickly.

Global average temperature increases could pass the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold outlined in the Paris Agreement by the end of the decade, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service, putting the world at greater risk of never-seen-before extreme weather events.

U.S. forests have stored more carbon in the past two decades than at any time in the last century, an increase attributable to a mix of natural factors and human activity, finds a new study.

Ask people how Stonehenge was built and you'll hear stories of sledges, ropes, boats and sheer human determination to haul stones from across Britain to Salisbury Plain, in south-west England. Others might mention giants, wizards, or alien assistance to explain the transport of Stonehenge's stones, which come from as far as Wales and Scotland.

During the last ice age, the Atlantic Ocean's powerful current system remained active and continued to transport warm, salty water from the tropics to the North Atlantic despite extensive ice cover across much of the Northern Hemisphere, finds new research led by UCL scientists.

Through sand extraction and the disposal of dredged harbor silt, about 200 million tons of sediment are relocated every year in the coastal waters of the North Sea. The Wadden Sea is particularly strongly affected. This is the result of a new study by the Helmholtz Center Hereon, which for the first time evaluated comprehensive data on dredging activities along the North Sea coasts.

Our planet has experienced dramatic climate shifts throughout its history, oscillating between freezing "icehouse" periods and warm "greenhouse" states.

New UBC Okanagan research shows that wildfire can change how much water remains in streams during the driest months of the year.

In early January, a giant sinkhole formed at an intersection in the West Oak Lane neighborhood of North Philadelphia after a water main break. Just two weeks earlier, the city reopened a section of the Schuylkill River Trail in Center City that had been shut down for two months due to a sinkhole. Last summer, some residents of Point Breeze in South Philly also waited two months for a sinkhole on their block to be repaired.

The ocean is continuously ventilated when surface waters sink and transport, for example, oxygen and carbon to greater depths. The efficiency of this process can be estimated using the so-called water age, which describes the time elapsed since a water mass last was in contact with the atmosphere.

A new analysis of air quality data from the past 70 years shows that Canada's record wildfire smoke in 2023 is part of a broader, continent-wide trend toward smokier skies across North America.