A new study describes a period of rapid global climate change in an ice-capped world much like the present—but 304 million years ago. Within about 300,000 years, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels doubled, oceans became ...
Earth Sciences
May 2, 2022
58
197
Ocean water samples collected around the world have yielded a treasure trove of new data about RNA viruses, expanding ecological research possibilities and reshaping our understanding of how these small but significant submicroscopic ...
Cell & Microbiology
Apr 7, 2022
0
456
If life is abundant in the universe, atmospheric methane may be the first sign of life beyond Earth detectable by astronomers. Although nonbiological processes can generate methane, a new study by scientists at UC Santa Cruz ...
Astrobiology
Mar 28, 2022
1
731
A massive release of greenhouse gases, likely triggered by volcanic activity, caused a period of extreme global warming known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) about 56 million years ago. A new study now confirms ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 16, 2022
27
113
Scientists at the University of Southampton have discovered that two intense periods of volcanism triggered a period of global cooling and falling oxygen levels in the oceans, which caused one of the most severe mass extinctions ...
Earth Sciences
Dec 2, 2021
1
232
The Arctic Ocean has been getting warmer since the beginning of the 20th century—decades earlier than records suggest—due to warmer water flowing into the delicate polar ecosystem from the Atlantic Ocean.
Earth Sciences
Nov 24, 2021
4
1462
Several years ago, while analyzing ice core samples from Antarctica's James Ross Island, scientists Joe McConnell, Ph.D., and Nathan Chellman, Ph.D., from DRI, and Robert Mulvaney, Ph.D., from the British Antarctic Survey ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 6, 2021
0
416
Microscopic marine life plays a fundamental role in the health of the ocean and, ultimately, the planet. Just like plants on land, tiny phytoplankton use photosynthesis to consume carbon dioxide and convert it into organic ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 16, 2021
0
509
Two hundred fifty-two million years ago, much of life on planet Earth was dying.
Earth Sciences
Aug 2, 2021
11
2742
Diatoms—tiny phytoplankton that are responsible for a fifth of all energy converted into matter by plants—may have become important much earlier in the development of Earth's ocean ecosystems and carbon cycle than previously ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 29, 2021
0
1035
