Image: São Miguel
The Copernicus Sentinel-2A satellite takes us over the largest island of the Azores: São Miguel. Resting at the intersection of the Eurasian, African and North American tectonic plates, the Azores form a string of volcanic ...
Last update New study estimates the caregiving costs for families, 1 hour ago
Earth Sciences news
Subducting slabs of the Earth's crust may generate unusual features spotted near the core
Nearly 1,800 miles below the earth's surface, there are large odd structures lurking at the base of the mantle, sitting just above the core. The mantle is a thick layer of hot, mostly plastic rock that surrounds the core; ...
Propping up glaciers to avoid cataclysmic sea level rise
As global warming outpaces efforts to tame it, scientists have proposed building massive underwater structures to prevent an Antarctic glacier the size of Britain from sliding into the sea and lifting the world's oceans by ...
NASA balloon mission captures electric blue clouds
On the cusp of our atmosphere live a thin group of seasonal electric blue clouds. Forming 50 miles above the poles in summer, these clouds are known as noctilucent clouds or polar mesospheric clouds—PMCs. A recent NASA ...
Seismic research cruise provides new data on US Atlantic margin gas hydrates
Data acquired by the U.S. Geological Survey on the U.S. Atlantic margin in August 2018 reveal new information about the distribution of gas hydrates in the sector stretching from the upper continental slope to deep water ...
Scientists ID three causes of Earth's spin axis drift
A typical desk globe is designed to be a geometric sphere and to rotate smoothly when you spin it. Our actual planet is far less perfect—in both shape and in rotation.
Study tracks Hurricane Harvey stormwater with GPS
Hurricane Harvey dumped more than 5 feet (1.5 meters) of water on southeast Texas in late August 2017, making it the wettest recorded hurricane in U.S. history. But after the storm passed, where did all that water go?
Glacial engineering could limit sea-level rise, if we get our emissions under control
Targeted engineering projects to hold off glacier melting could slow down the collapse of ice sheets and limit sea-level rise, according to a new study published in the European Geosciences Union journal The Cryosphere. While ...
Unprecedented ice loss in Russian ice cap
In the last few years, the Vavilov Ice Cap in the Russian High Arctic has dramatically accelerated, sliding as much as 82 feet a day in 2015, according to a new multi-national, multi-institute study led by CIRES Fellow Mike ...
Sustained levels of moderate warming could melt the East Antarctic Ice Sheet
New research on marine sediment layers from Antarctica indicates that the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) retreated during extended warm periods in the past, when temperatures were like those predicted for this century.
End-Permian extinction, which wiped out most of Earth's species, was instantaneous in geological time
The most severe mass extinction in Earth's history occurred with almost no early warning signs, according to a new study by scientists at MIT, China, and elsewhere.
Coral skeletons act as archive of desert conditions from Little Ice Age
The Sahara and Arabian deserts did not cool as much as the rest of the Northern Hemisphere during the Little Ice Age, but in fact were drier 200 years ago than they are today, according to a new study.
Searching for clues on extreme climate change
The remains of a buried pine forest at the foot of Mont Saint Genis in Southern France yield insightful information on a drastic climate change event. The pine tree stand initiated around 12,900 years ago during the relatively ...
Geoscientists find unexpected 'deep creep' near San Andreas, San Jacinto faults
A new analysis of thousands of very small earthquakes that have occurred in the San Bernardino basin near the San Andreas and San Jacinto faults suggests that the unusual deformation of some—they move in a different way ...
Study links natural climate oscillations in north Atlantic to Greenland ice sheet melt
Scientists have known for years that warming global climate is melting the Greenland Ice Sheet, the second largest ice sheet in the world. A new study from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), however, shows that ...
Scientists closing in on source of Shetland tsunamis
Shetland has been hit by at least two more tsunamis in the past 10,000 years than previously thought, and scientists are working to identify where the giant waves originated.
Scientists locate parent lightning strokes of sprites
Thunderstorms can generate various forms of transient luminous events, such as red sprites, gigantic jets, and blue jets through the charge transfer involved in the lightning forged inside thunderclouds.
Tropics are widening as predicted by climate models, research finds
Scientists have observed for years that the Earth's tropics are widening in connection with complex changes in climate and weather patterns. But in recent years, it appeared the widening was outpacing what models predicted, ...
Large-scale shift causing lower-oxygen water to invade Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence
The Gulf of St. Lawrence has warmed and lost oxygen faster than almost anywhere else in the global oceans. The broad, biologically rich waterway in Eastern Canada drains North America's Great Lakes and is popular with fishing ...
Paris climate targets could be exceeded sooner than expected
A new study has for the first time comprehensively accounted for permafrost carbon release when estimating emission budgets for climate targets. The results show that the world might be closer to exceeding the budget for ...
Predicting flood risk better
Engineers at Ruhr-Universität Bochum have developed a new statistical model that predicts how likely extreme flood events are in Germany. In contrast to earlier models, they distinguish between several types of floods with ...
Mummified penguins tell of past and future deadly weather
New research links the mummified remains of penguin chicks in Antarctica to two massive weather-related calamities that could become more commonplace with climate change.
Copernicus Sentinel maps Hurricane Florence flooding
Making landfall in the US state of North Carolina on 14 September, Hurricane Florence is causing widespread damage and flooding. The Copernicus Sentinel-1 radar mission is being used to map affected areas.
How phytoplankton survive in ocean gyres with low nutrient supplies
Subtropical gyres are huge, sustained currents spanning thousands of kilometers across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, where very little grows.
Image: Northeast Ethiopia
The Copernicus Sentinel-1B satellite takes us over Semera in northeast Ethiopia. Semera is a new town with a population of just over 2600 and serves as the capital of the Afar region. The region spans an estimated 270 000 ...
Geologists reveal ancient connection between England and France
The British mainland was formed from the collision of not two, but three ancient continental land masses, according to new research.
Vital for life, heat and power – what you never knew about salt water
Your tongue is a salt detector – it dissolves the solid salt crystals sprinkled on your chips to create an intense flavour sensation.
Recognising tsunamis risks
Researchers from ETH Zurich and the University of Bern are studying lakes in Switzerland to learn about tsunamis and their hazard, what triggers them, and how often they have occurred in the past.
Giant iceberg escapes
In July 2017, one of the largest icebergs on record calved from the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica. However, sea ice to the east and shallow waters to the north kept this giant berg, named A68, hemmed in. So for more than ...
Rooting out the errors in climate models to better predict hurricanes
On the eve of every hurricane season, climatologists around the world offer their studied prognostications: Will we see high activity? Low activity? How will ocean temperature affect storm development? What are the chances ...
Famous theory of the living Earth upgraded to 'Gaia 2.0'
A time-honoured theory into why conditions on Earth have remained stable enough for life to evolve over billions of years has been given a new, innovative twist.
Plate tectonics observatory to create seismic shift in earthquake research
We may never be able to entirely predict earthquakes such as those that hit central Italy in 2016, but we could better assess how they're going to play out by joining up data from different scientific fields in a new Europe-wide ...
How meteorologists predict the next big hurricane
Hurricane Florence is heading toward the U.S. coast, right at the height of hurricane season.
Predictability of the EAP teleconnection pattern can improve climate services over East Asia
A group of scientists from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the UK Met Office Hadley Center, investigated the absence of the East Asia-Pacific pattern in the extratropics using state-of-the-art ...
Welcome to the new Meghalayan age – here's how it fits with the rest of Earth's geologic history
Jurassic, Pleistocene, Precambrian. The named times in Earth's history might inspire mental images of dinosaurs, trilobites or other enigmatic animals unlike anything in our modern world.
Where to place a rainwater harvesting system
On any given day, Zoubaida Salman instructs a classroom of 15-year-olds at the Sur Baher Girls School in East Jerusalem, where she has served as the science teacher and Environment and Health Coordinator for the past 22 years. ...
Wetlands are key for accurate greenhouse gas measurements in the Arctic
The Arctic is rapidly warming, with stronger effects than observed elsewhere in the world. The Arctic regions are particularly important with respect to climate change, as permafrost soils store huge amounts of the Earth's ...
Scientists find stable sea levels during last interglacial
Visualize the following: The Earth's climate swings between cold glacial and warm interglacial periods; the last glacial interval was about 20,000 years ago; sea level was about 126 meters (413 feet) below modern sea level ...
How fast can Antarctica rise when the ice melts?
Earth is finally free to rise after hundreds of thousands of years of ice suppression.
AI speeds up climate computations
Realistic climate simulations require huge reserves of computational power. An LMU study now shows that new algorithms allow interactions in the atmosphere to be modeled more rapidly without loss of reliability.
Oceanographer's hurricane models deliver more precise forecasts
Isaac Ginis said that it is notoriously difficult to forecast hurricanes in New England. When storms move north, they develop a more complex wind structure than those remaining in the Southeast and Gulf of Mexico, their paths ...
Old images give new insight on climate change
When studying climate change, it is often a problem that reliable, comparable data go back just a few decades. Long time series are in high demand, especially when it comes to the Earth's cryosphere, consisting of glaciers, ...
Encouraging scientists to collaborate on the tropics
Timothy Perez, a biology Ph.D. student at the University of Miami, left snowflakes behind to pursue his dream of becoming a tropical botanist in the Sunshine State. His latest study, "The changing nature of collaboration ...
Emissions from most diesel cars in Europe greatly exceed laboratory testing levels
In September 2015, the German automaker Volkswagen was found to have illegally cheated federal emissions tests in the United States, by intentionally programming emissions control devices to turn on only during laboratory ...
Combining multiple CCTV images could help catch suspects
Combining multiple poor quality CCTV images into a single, computer-enhanced composite could improve the accuracy of facial recognition systems used to identify criminal suspects, new research suggests.
Mobile device could make it easier to predict and control harmful algal blooms
In the past 10 years, harmful algal blooms—sudden increases in the population of algae, typically in coastal regions and freshwater systems—have become a more serious problem for marine life throughout the U.S. The blooms ...
On-demand room-temperature single photon array—a quantum communication breakthrough
Physicists at The City College of New York have used atomically thin two-dimensional materials to realize an array of quantum emitters operating at room temperature that can be integrated into next generation quantum communication ...
Historian angers group who proposed labeling late Holocene as Meghalayan Age
Guy Middleton, a historian at the Czech Institute of Egyptology at Charles University in Prague, has angered members of the group who successfully pushed for the creation of a new unit of geological time called the Meghalayan ...
Perovskite semiconductors seeing right through next generation X-ray detectors
From observing celestial objects to medical imaging, the sensitive detection of X-rays plays a central role in countless applications. However, the methods used to detect them have undergone an interesting evolution of their ...
Graphene bilayer provides efficient transport and control of spins
University of Groningen physicists in collaboration with a theoretical physics group from Universität Regensburg have built an optimized bilayer graphene device that displays both long spin lifetimes and electrically controllable ...
Scientists solve the golden puzzle of calaverite
Scientists from Russia and Germany have shed light on the crystalline structure of calaverite, foretelling the existence of a new gold compound previously unknown to chemists. The results of their study were published in ...
Sparrow in a lead mine—birds adapt to life in contaminated areas
A new study of house sparrows' genes has found the first evidence of animals adapting to lead contamination in heavily polluted areas of Australia.
How quinoa plants shed excess salt and thrive in saline soils
Barely heard of a couple of years ago, quinoa today is common on European supermarket shelves. The hardy plant thrives even in saline soils. Researchers from the University of Würzburg have now determined how the plant gets ...
Japan space probe drops hopping rovers towards asteroid
A Japanese space probe Friday released a pair of exploring rovers towards an egg-shaped asteroid to collect mineral samples that may shed light on the origin of the solar system.
New observations to understand the phase transition in quantum chromodynamics
The building blocks of matter in our universe were formed in the first 10 microseconds of its existence, according to the currently accepted scientific picture. After the Big Bang about 13.7 billion years ago, matter consisted ...
Scientists reveal the hidden costs of cobalt mining in DR Congo
In recent years, the demand for cobalt, a crucial component of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries for smartphones and electric cars, has been on the increase. Around 60 percent of the world's cobalt supply comes from the ...
Researchers report simpler method for safely handling methanethiol in chemical synthesis
The chemical element sulfur is an important constituent in many pharmaceuticals, and consequently, it is desirable to introduce sulfur-containing fragments efficiently in a broad range of chemical compounds. The Skrydstrup ...
Neutrons produce first direct 3-D maps of water during cell membrane fusion
New 3-D maps of water distribution during cellular membrane fusion are accelerating scientific understanding of cell development, which could lead to new treatments for diseases associated with cell fusion. Using neutron ...
Amazon aims to make Alexa assistant bigger part of users' lives
From the kitchen to the car, Amazon on Thursday sought to make its Alexa digital assistant and online services a bigger part of people's lives with an array of new products and partnerships.
To improve auto coatings, new tests do more than scratch the surface
Know that sickening feeling when you exit the grocery store and find your car has been banged up by a runaway shopping cart? It may one day be just a bad memory if auto body manufacturers make use of a new suite of tests ...
Synthetic organelle shows how tiny puddle-organs in our cells work
A couple of sugars, a dash of enzymes, a pinch of salt, a splash of polyethylene glycol, carefully arranged in watery baths. And researchers had made a synthetic organelle, which they used in a new study to explore some odd ...
What makes a mammal a mammal? Our spine, say scientists
Mammals are unique in many ways. We're warm-blooded and agile in comparison with our reptilian relatives.
Fat from 558 million years ago reveals earliest known animal
Scientists from The Australian National University (ANU) and overseas have discovered molecules of fat in an ancient fossil to reveal the earliest confirmed animal in the geological record that lived on Earth 558 million ...
Astrophysicists measure precise rotation pattern of sun-like stars for the first time
Sun-like stars rotate up to two and a half times faster at the equator than at higher latitudes, a finding by researchers at NYU Abu Dhabi that challenges current science on how stars rotate.
Simulations enable 'choose-your-own-adventure' stereochemistry
Stereochemistry is a science of reflection. Two chemical molecules with the same composition and structure, but with one as the mirror image of the other, can produce wildly varying effects. Controlling which molecule emerges ...
Plug-and-play technology automates chemical synthesis
Designing a new chemical synthesis can be a laborious process with a fair amount of drudgery involved—mixing chemicals, measuring temperatures, analyzing the results, then starting over again if it doesn't work out.
Decoding the structure of an RNA-based CRISPR system
Over the past several years, CRISPR-Cas9 has moved beyond the lab bench and into the public zeitgeist. This gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 holds promise for correcting defects inside individual cells and potentially healing ...
First detection of matter falling into a black hole at 30 percent of the speed of light
A UK team of astronomers report the first detection of matter falling into a black hole at 30 percent of the speed of light, located in the centre of the billion-light year distant galaxy PG211+143. The team, led by Professor ...
Octopuses given mood drug 'ecstasy' reveal genetic link to evolution of social behaviors in humans
By studying the genome of a kind of octopus not known for its friendliness toward its peers, then testing its behavioral reaction to a popular mood-altering drug called MDMA or "ecstasy," scientists say they have found preliminary ...
Dwarf companion to EPIC 206011496 detected by astronomers
Using ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), European astronomers have uncovered the presence of an M-dwarf around the star EPIC 206011496. The newly found object is more than 60 percent less massive than our sun and is bounded ...
Candy-pink lagoon serves up salt-rich diet for potential life on Mars
The discovery of a microorganism that gives a candy-pink lagoon in central Spain its startling colour is providing new evidence for how life could survive on a high-salt diet on Mars or Europa. The Laguna de Peña Hueca, ...
Quick and not-so-dirty: A rapid nano-filter for clean water
Australian researchers have designed a rapid nano-filter that can clean dirty water over 100 times faster than current technology.
Gaia detects a shake in the Milky Way
A team led by researchers from the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB, UB-IEEC) and the University of Groningen has found, through the analysis of Gaia data, substructures in the Milky Way ...
Find more news articles via sort by date page
