Phys.org: Earth science

With unprecedented clarity, scientists have directly observed a subduction zone—the collision point where one tectonic plate dives beneath another—actively breaking apart. The discovery, reported in Science Advances, sheds new light on how Earth's surface evolves and raises fresh questions about future earthquake risks in the Pacific Northwest.

Scientists at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have provided conclusive evidence that the Red Sea completely dried out about 6.2 million years ago, before being suddenly refilled by a catastrophic flood from the Indian Ocean. The findings put a definitive time on a dramatic event that changed the Red Sea.

Long-term weather forecasting is a difficult task, partly because weather systems are inherently chaotic. Though mathematical equations can approximate the underlying physics of weather, tiny inaccuracies that grow exponentially as a model progresses in time limit most physics-based forecasts to 2 weeks or less.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Warming may lead to less frequent but bigger and more devastating hail storms, new research has shown.

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.

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).

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.

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.