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The latest news on earth sciences and the environment
Updated: 1 day 13 hours ago

High nitrate levels found in rural NZ drinking water

Tue, 09/30/2025 - 17:30
While publicly registered drinking water must meet government standards and regulations, people accessing private groundwater bores and springs supplying 25 or fewer people have no requirements to test their drinking water. Most of these groundwater self-supplies are found in rural areas and are vulnerable to nitrate contamination, leaving communities at risk if left untested.

Tracking microplastics from sea to body

Tue, 09/30/2025 - 17:20
On the edge of California's Monterey Bay, ecologist Matthew Savoca and a team of volunteers sift through sand and seawater for microplastics, one of the planet's most pervasive forms of pollution.

Frequent wildfires and heat intensify air quality issues in American megacities

Tue, 09/30/2025 - 16:45
Air quality in America's largest cities has steadily improved thanks to tighter regulations on key sources of particulate pollution. However, increased heat, wildfire smoke and other emerging global drivers of urban aerosol pollution are now combining to create a new set of challenges for public health officials tasked with protecting millions of people on the East Coast.

Thermal runaway mechanism can ramp up magnitude of certain earthquakes

Tue, 09/30/2025 - 16:12
In July 2024, a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck Calama, Chile, damaging buildings and causing power outages. The country has endured violent earthquakes, including the most powerful recorded in history: a 9.5-magnitude "megathrust" event that struck central Chile in 1960, causing a tsunami and killing between 1,000 to 6,000 people. However, the Calama quake was different from the megathrust quakes that are usually associated with the most destructive events in Chile and around the world.

The Earth is reflecting less and less sunlight, study reveals

Tue, 09/30/2025 - 15:20
The Earth became darker from 2001 to 2024, meaning it reflects less sunlight, a research team reports in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Wildfire-induced thunderstorms successfully recreated in Earth system models for the first time

Tue, 09/30/2025 - 15:07
On September 5, 2020, California's Creek Fire grew so severe that it began producing its own weather system. The fire's extreme heat produced an explosive thunderhead that spewed lightning strikes and further fanned the roaring flames, making containment elusive and endangering the lives of firefighters on the ground. These wildfire-born storms have become a growing part of fire seasons across the West, with lasting impacts on air quality, weather, and climate.

China's coastal land development policies may outweigh climate change in future flood risks

Mon, 09/29/2025 - 17:00
As global temperatures rise, thermal expansion of oceans and melting ice sheets are driving up sea levels worldwide. In many coastal areas, land subsidence—caused by groundwater extraction and rapid urbanization—further exacerbates flood risks. However, a new study reveals that in China, policy decisions on where and how to develop coastal land may have a more significant impact on future flooding than climate change itself.

Building trust in soil carbon as a climate solution requires stronger evidence, environmental scientists warn

Mon, 09/29/2025 - 17:00
In a comment published in Nature Climate Change, Mark Bradford, the E.H. Harriman Professor of Soils and Ecosystem Ecology, and Yale School of the Environment research scientists Sara Kuebbing and Alexander Polussa, Ph.D., together with colleagues Emily Oldfield, Ph.D., of Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and Jonathan Sanderman of the Woodwell Climate Research Center, argue that the scientific evidence supporting soil carbon's role in mitigating climate change remains too weak to meet the standards required for policy and carbon markets.

Decades in the making: Seeing the full impact from air pollution reductions

Mon, 09/29/2025 - 15:45
Researchers at Georgia Tech have analyzed the seasonal differences of sulfate aerosols—a major pollutant in the United States—to examine the long-term impact from sulfur dioxide (SO₂) emission reductions since the enactment of the Clean Air Act amendments in 1990.

Scientists return from Tonga with clues to uncover what led to the 'eruption of the century'

Mon, 09/29/2025 - 15:21
A collaborative research team led by University of Tasmania scientists has returned from a major 54-day voyage on CSIRO research vessel (RV) Investigator to explore the impacts of the devastating 2022 eruption of Tonga's underwater Hunga Volcano.

Study of extreme Indian rainfall upends conventional wisdom

Sun, 09/28/2025 - 13:20
A new study published in the journal Science, led by scientists at the City College of New York (CCNY) and Columbia University, challenges long-held beliefs about how El Niño events influence rainfall during the Indian summer monsoon. The findings show that while El Niño often brings drought conditions to India overall, it also increases the likelihood of devastating downpours in some of the country's most heavily populated regions.

Avoiding static land surface models: Improvements in simulating water-energy-vegetation dynamics

Fri, 09/26/2025 - 17:00
The exchange of water and heat between Earth and its atmosphere determines climate zones and ecosystems, which in turn influence where essential human activities take place.

Fewer hailstorms but bigger hailstones: Climate change shifts Europe's severe weather risks

Fri, 09/26/2025 - 16:07
Warming may lead to less frequent but bigger and more devastating hail storms, new research has shown.

Study reveals hidden 'electron highways' that power underground chemistry and pollution cleanup

Fri, 09/26/2025 - 15:09
Beneath our feet, an invisible world of electron exchanges quietly drives the chemistry that sustains ecosystems, controls water quality, and even determines the fate of pollutants.

Intense groundwater flow destabilizes ice in North America's Great Lakes, simulations show

Fri, 09/26/2025 - 10:50
Powerful pulses of groundwater flow up from beneath Lakes Michigan and Huron, which together form one of the largest freshwater systems in the world. This groundwater flux may dramatically alter how and where ice forms, with important implications for ice-climate models. As climate change pressures the system, new research suggests that conventional models may underestimate how groundwater can destabilize lake ice along its shorelines (coasts).

How salt-tolerant floodplain forests help protect against rising salinity and floods

Thu, 09/25/2025 - 19:41
Salt intrusion is a growing concern worldwide. Eleonora Saccon, who completed a master's degree in climate change ecology in her native Italy, studied the effects of salty surface water at the NIOZ branch in Zeeland.

Carbon cycle flaw could push Earth into an ice age as planet overcorrects for warming

Thu, 09/25/2025 - 18:00
UC Riverside researchers have discovered a piece that was missing in previous descriptions of the way Earth recycles its carbon. As a result, they believe that global warming can overcorrect into an ice age.

Drought and low water levels could slow global trade at the Panama Canal

Thu, 09/25/2025 - 15:53
A vital waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the Panama Canal relies on fresh water supplied by a reservoir to raise and lower the locks that allow the transit of thousands of ships a year.

Unmanned submersible developed to collect typhoon data and improve forecasting

Thu, 09/25/2025 - 15:18
Typhoons and their Atlantic counterparts—hurricanes—can develop into massively destructive storms that can take a severe toll on both infrastructure and human life. Climate change is additionally spurring even more intense storms with higher wind speeds and rainfall.

Tiny iron oxide stones reveal Earth's ancient oceans were carbon-poor, challenging previous assumptions

Thu, 09/25/2025 - 15:17
Earth scientists often face huge challenges when researching Earth's history: many significant events occurred such a long time ago that there is little direct evidence available. Consequently, researchers often have to rely on indirect clues or on computer models.

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