At least twice in Earth's history, nearly the entire planet was encased in a sheet of snow and ice. These dramatic "Snowball Earth" events occurred in quick succession, somewhere around 700 million years ago, and evidence ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 28, 2020
16
2881
How do you boil water? Eschewing the traditional kettle and flame, MIT engineers have invented a bubble-wrapped, sponge-like device that soaks up natural sunlight and heats water to boiling temperatures, generating steam ...
Energy & Green Tech
Aug 22, 2016
2
741
Variations in the amount of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere significantly altered global climate throughout the planet's history. Efforts to reconstruct past climates must include this previously overlooked factor, a new University ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 11, 2015
17
1311
A proposal to cover Arctic sea ice with layers of tiny hollow glass spheres about the thickness of one human hair would actually accelerate sea-ice loss and warm the climate rather than creating thick ice and lowering the ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 5, 2022
2
67
Capturing sunlight reflected off the Earth's surface and bounced off a cloud back to the Earth is an effective measure of surface reflectivity—or surface albedo, the measure of how mirror-like the Earth's surface is. Researchers ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 3, 2014
0
0
(Phys.org) —Aerosols, tiny particles in the atmosphere, play a significant role in Earth's climate, scattering and absorbing incoming sunlight and affecting the formation and properties of clouds. Currently, the effect ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 4, 2014
13
1
A new study has found that pollution from fine particles in the air – mainly the result of burning coal or volcanic eruptions – can shade corals from sunlight and cool the surrounding water resulting in reduced growth ...
Environment
Apr 7, 2013
0
0
Geoengineering, the use of human technologies to alter the Earth's climate system—such as injecting reflective particles into the upper atmosphere to scatter incoming sunlight back to space—has emerged as a potentially ...
Environment
Mar 14, 2013
2
0
A University of Saskatchewan-led international research team has discovered that aerosols from relatively small volcanic eruptions can be boosted into the high atmosphere by weather systems such as monsoons, where they can ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 5, 2012
0
0
(Phys.org) -- The dramatic melt-off of Arctic sea ice due to climate change is hitting closer to home than millions of Americans might think. That's because melting Arctic sea ice can trigger a domino effect leading to increased ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 6, 2012
71
0
