https://phys.org/earth-news/earth-sciences/ en-us The latest news on earth sciences and the environment Have you ever walked across a salt flat so expansive it feels like another planet? That's what it's like standing in Egypt's coastal sabkhas—those otherworldly landscapes where the ground crunches beneath your feet and the air shimmers with heat. These aren't just barren wastelands; they're living laboratories that record the pulse of our changing climate. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-salt-earth-egypt-coastal-sabkhas.html Earth Sciences Tue, 01 Sep 2026 18:00:06 EDT news707392774 The Labrador Shelf is a shallow marine area on the margin of the Labrador Sea in the North Atlantic off the east coast of Canada. During the last ice age, this region was covered by the Laurentide Ice Sheet, one of the largest ice masses in Earth's history, which once covered vast parts of North America. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-canada-labrador-shelf-climate-thought.html Earth Sciences Tue, 01 Sep 2026 17:40:05 EDT news707493902 Extreme weather events, such as floods, droughts and torrential rains, affect water quality in lakes, rivers and coastal areas. This creates significant challenges for ecosystems and water supplies because pesticides bound in soil can quickly leach into water sources. Now, researchers want to monitor this in a new way. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-gen-sensors-pollution-real.html Earth Sciences Tue, 01 Sep 2026 13:20:06 EDT news707472541 On Nov. 11, 2025, Earth experienced a severe geomagnetic storm triggered by solar flares and coronal mass ejections from an active sunspot region. While this kind of storm brings beautiful auroras admired in many areas around the world, it can also cause ionospheric disturbances that disrupt radio waves and affect crucial technologies. A new study, published in Geophysical Research Letters, found that disruptions caused by this storm scrambled GPS signals in areas where such disruptions have never been reported. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-geomagnetic-superstorm-shook-gps-accuracy.html Earth Sciences Tue, 01 Sep 2026 12:30:01 EDT news707483362 In computer simulations of the Big One—a large-magnitude earthquake that may occur along the San Andreas Fault in California—seismic waves ripple from the epicenter of a magnitude 7.8 earthquake near the Salton Sea into the Los Angeles Basin. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-los-angeles-basin-deep-sediments.html Earth Sciences Tue, 01 Sep 2026 09:40:05 EDT news707470981 Erosion rates on parts of the Kaikōura Peninsula more than doubled after the 2016 earthquake, showing major quakes can "rapidly alter" the way coastlines evolve, an Otago researcher says. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-kaikura-erosion-world-coastlines.html Earth Sciences Tue, 01 Sep 2026 08:40:03 EDT news707461321 Data from many sources, including NASA, have shown a significant decrease in Arctic sea ice since 1979. However, the processes driving the melting and freezing of sea ice are complex, and fluctuations occur throughout the year. Short-term variations in temperature, winds, ocean convection and water salinity within a certain region can also affect how much ice can reform or melt. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-anomalous-odden-ice-tongue-unusual.html Earth Sciences Mon, 31 Aug 2026 13:30:01 EDT news707399596 Whakaari/White Island's sudden eruption in December 2019, which killed 22 people and severely injured 25 others, was New Zealand's deadliest volcanic disaster in recent history. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-earlier-volcano-false-alarms.html Earth Sciences Mon, 31 Aug 2026 13:20:10 EDT news707394542 New research is dismantling the longstanding myth of the "pristine" Amazon. A reconstruction of 10,000 years of Amazonian pyrogeography, based on 1,361 radiocarbon (¹⁴C) dates across 303 sites—including soil charcoal and burned archaeological material—shows that fire in the rainforest is almost exclusively a human-driven phenomenon, not a natural one. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-human-driven-amazonian-forest-years.html Earth Sciences Mon, 31 Aug 2026 10:40:10 EDT news707389801 Europe is no stranger to powerful windstorms, but some storms capable of causing serious damage have an unusual origin. Tropical cyclones can occasionally travel north from lower latitudes and reach Europe, where they can bring damaging winds and heavy rain even after losing some of their tropical characteristics. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-uk-ireland-greatest-rare-tropical.html Earth Sciences Mon, 31 Aug 2026 10:00:07 EDT news707137390 When high or low tide occurs, the water does not necessarily rise and fall uniformly along the entire coastline. In fact, the height of the tide in a bay can vary by up to one meter (3 feet) from one location to another just a few kilometers away. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-tides-locally-method-based-satellite.html Earth Sciences Sun, 30 Aug 2026 15:00:04 EDT news706970739 A new study suggests that El Ninos—the natural climatic chaos agent that pops up periodically and spikes global temperatures—are getting stronger because of human-caused climate change. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-super-el-nino-climate-ninos.html Earth Sciences Sun, 30 Aug 2026 14:00:02 EDT news707058712 Fracking, the injection of high-pressure fluid to fracture rock and release oil or gas, can trigger earthquakes. While some sites generate small tremors beforehand that may provide an early warning, others produce few or none. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-earthquakes-fracking.html Earth Sciences Fri, 28 Aug 2026 13:10:01 EDT news707137404 The devastating floods that have swept through the Nepal–Tibet border region are first and foremost a human tragedy. Hundreds of people have died or remain missing. But as scientists begin to reconstruct what happened, the event also exposes something fundamental about the way we understand natural hazards in high mountain regions. Mountains and rivers do not reset after an extreme event. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-nepal-devastating-reveal-danger-cascading.html Earth Sciences Fri, 28 Aug 2026 10:40:04 EDT news707119802 Rock weathering, the breakdown and dissolving of rocks and minerals caused by their exposure to water, air and biological life, is a major regulator of Earth's atmospheric CO2 levels and climate. Throughout Earth's history, rock weathering has been faster during warm periods with increased atmospheric CO2 levels. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-bacteria-weathering-carbon.html Earth Sciences Fri, 28 Aug 2026 10:20:01 EDT news707129918 Just a few minutes of freezing and thawing can have a decisive impact on how ferrihydrite, the most reactive iron mineral in cold soils, permafrost and glaciers, transforms, according to researchers at Umeå University. As climate warming intensifies freeze-thaw cycles and extends them into new regions, ice is becoming an increasingly important driver of Earth's ecosystems. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-minutes-fate-iron-nature.html Earth Sciences Thu, 27 Aug 2026 16:20:03 EDT news707062142 More than 150 people are dead and hundreds more are missing after an enormous wave of water, ice, mud and rock cascaded more than 170 kilometers (106 miles) down the Bhote Koshi River valley in Nepal. The valley is the main link between Kathmandu in Nepal and Lhasa in Tibet. At least 34 Australians are missing. There was little warning. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-tsunami-dirt-nepal-deadly-glacial.html Earth Sciences Thu, 27 Aug 2026 14:20:05 EDT news707054162 As an El Niño of historic proportions is taking shape in the tropical Pacific, a University of Michigan study has found that El Niño events have become nearly 40% stronger in the last 40 years than they were in the preindustrial era. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-el-nios-intense-years-previous.html Earth Sciences Thu, 27 Aug 2026 14:00:03 EDT news707045581 Climate change was once something scientists warned us about, and now it's a reality we are living in. In California's Central Valley, about one-third of climate-related groundwater loss between 2003 and 2024 can be attributed to emissions from the same actors. Scientists call them the "Carbon Majors," a group of 122 corporations that are the world's largest producers of oil, gas, coal and cement. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-major-polluters-worsening-western-crisis.html Earth Sciences Thu, 27 Aug 2026 08:20:01 EDT news707022069 Spreading finely crushed basalt across farmland has been promoted as a relatively simple way to remove large quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But a new study led by Cornell researchers suggests the real-world potential of this method, known as enhanced weathering, may be far smaller than widely cited estimates. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-basalt-weathering.html Earth Sciences Wed, 26 Aug 2026 16:40:03 EDT news706964666 Florida gets a lot of attention for its sinkholes, especially when they swallow cars and entire houses. But its sinkhole risk has nothing on Alaska's. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-lakes-photos-ai-scientists-arctic.html Earth Sciences Wed, 26 Aug 2026 16:20:03 EDT news706964341 An international study led by researchers at the George Washington University indicates clear global evidence that permafrost is thawing across much of the planet. Using more than two decades of field observations from 156 monitoring sites across the Arctic, Antarctic and high-mountain regions, the study found increases in the thickness of the active layer, the uppermost layer above permafrost that thaws and refreezes each year. The findings confirm that permafrost degradation accelerated globally between 2000 and 2024. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-permafrost-worldwide-layers-deepen.html Earth Sciences Wed, 26 Aug 2026 15:40:09 EDT news706963501 The use of fossil fuels alters both the concentration and the carbon isotope composition of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Since surface water exchanges carbon dioxide with the atmosphere, this also alters the isotopic composition of the carbon dissolved in the ocean. In a new study, a team from MARUM—Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen has now determined how deep this so-called Suess effect has already penetrated into the North Atlantic. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-fossil-fuel-carbon-fingerprint-deep.html Earth Sciences Wed, 26 Aug 2026 15:20:03 EDT news706962542 Whenever there's a series of destructive or notable earthquakes, scientists get asked the same question: Are earthquakes becoming more frequent? https://phys.org/news/2026-08-earthquakes-common.html Earth Sciences Wed, 26 Aug 2026 09:40:03 EDT news706946402 Unlike conventional glaciers, rock glaciers appear as piles of rock that obscure large masses of unaccounted-for ice. Rock glaciers are common in the Wasatch and Uinta ranges, even appearing on the Colorado Plateau in the La Sal Mountains near Moab. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-utah-mountain-ranges-billion-tons.html Earth Sciences Wed, 26 Aug 2026 07:00:09 EDT news706866297 A new study that combines paleoclimate data and climate models suggests that large volcanic eruptions can disrupt the relationship between atmospheric circulation patterns over the tropical Indian and Pacific oceans. In addition, human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are now driving an unprecedented breakdown in interbasin coupling, according to researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). https://phys.org/news/2026-08-volcanic-eruptions-climate-disrupt-link.html Earth Sciences Wed, 26 Aug 2026 05:00:02 EDT news706872181 Pure water freezes only at around -38°C (-36°F). Tiny mineral dust particles act as so-called ice nucleators—crystallization seeds on which ice crystals form. A research team at Bielefeld University and the University of Vienna, in cooperation with researchers at the University of Helsinki, has now demonstrated for the first time at the molecular scale why the mineral microcline is particularly effective at forming ice in clouds. The study, published in published in the journal Nature Communications, provides a new explanation for processes that influence climate and precipitation worldwide. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-microcline-reveals-common-mineral-surface.html Earth Sciences Tue, 25 Aug 2026 17:40:01 EDT news706887040 Selma Sarı and an international group of colleagues investigated the TOL-1 section in the Mut Basin (southern Türkiye), while documenting the world's highest known Late Middle Pleistocene (MIS 7) marine deposits, preserved at 1,177 m (3,860 feet) above mean sea level on the southern margin of the Central Anatolian Plateau. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-world-highest-late-middle-pleistocene.html Earth Sciences Tue, 25 Aug 2026 17:00:06 EDT news706894263 Can a city's seawall stand up to a blockbuster storm? Will a region's power grid hold against record-breaking heat? And can a town's firefighting resources contain a major wildfire? https://phys.org/news/2026-08-inches-york-city-ai-plausible.html Earth Sciences Tue, 25 Aug 2026 14:40:05 EDT news706875841 From Texas to Maine, coastal wetlands and marshes are releasing more than 1.45 billion pounds (660,000 metric tons) of carbon into the ocean each year, according to new research supported by NASA. Coastal marshes, like forests and tundra, store large amounts of carbon in their plants and soil, but changes caused by storms, rising seas and human development can affect how that carbon is stored and transported. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-satellite-analysis-tracks-carbon-coastal.html Earth Sciences Tue, 25 Aug 2026 13:00:03 EDT news706874600