https://phys.org/earth-news/earth-sciences/ en-us The latest news on earth sciences and the environment The Ontong Java Plateau in the western Pacific Ocean is the largest oceanic plateau on Earth, and its formation mechanism has not been well understood. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-thermochemical-mantle-plume-earth-largest.html Earth Sciences Mon, 15 Jun 2026 17:00:06 EDT news700758182 Over 40,000 seamounts—undersea mountains that don't breach the ocean's surface—are scattered across the ocean floor. Some form linear chains, while others occur as dispersed, isolated features that are not part of well-defined volcanic chains. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-deep-earth-million-years-seamount.html Earth Sciences Mon, 15 Jun 2026 16:40:01 EDT news700758001 The warm Gulf Stream is maintained by coldness. The Barents Sea is a cooling machine. To predict how ocean currents in the Atlantic Ocean may develop, one needs to know what drives them. The hunt for driving forces has led researchers to follow the warm water from the Gulf Stream as far north as it gets. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-arctic-sea-ice-loss-reshape.html Earth Sciences Mon, 15 Jun 2026 16:00:10 EDT news700755121 Researchers have developed a new approach using data from NASA's Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite to observe the timing and progression of fall colors across landscapes. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-pace-satellite-tracks-fall-daily.html Earth Sciences Mon, 15 Jun 2026 14:20:04 EDT news700744981 The Arctic and northern high latitudes are warming about 2–4 times faster than the global average, allowing ancient permafrost to thaw and release stored carbon. These permafrost soils currently store roughly one-third of the world's organic soil carbon, much of which has remained frozen for thousands of years. As the soils thaw, organic matter from dead plants and animals within them starts to decompose, and greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, are released. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-northern-permafrost-carbon-source-earlier.html Earth Sciences Mon, 15 Jun 2026 12:59:59 EDT news700747125 Changes in wind patterns play the leading role in influencing often devastating tropical rainfall changes, rather than simply the warming atmosphere holding more moisture, according to new research. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-patterns-play-role-tropical-rainfall.html Earth Sciences Mon, 15 Jun 2026 11:20:10 EDT news700735921 Planting trees is widely promoted as a natural solution to climate change. But a new study led by researchers from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences finds that the hydrological consequences of reforestation depend critically on how much the world warms. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-reforestation-effects-resources-global.html Earth Sciences Mon, 15 Jun 2026 11:00:01 EDT news700487413 Climate change is altering where and when rocks are most likely to fracture across Spain, according to new research that suggests warming temperatures are redistributing a key process responsible for breaking down mountain landscapes. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-climate-reshapes-spain-rockfall-frost.html Earth Sciences Mon, 15 Jun 2026 05:40:02 EDT news700479435 Most people have experienced a heat wave on land. But heat waves can strike in the ocean too. And as the planet continues to warm, marine heat waves are growing longer and deadlier, hurting the seafood supply that billions of people worldwide rely on for their food and livelihoods. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-solar-geoengineering-shield-oceans.html Earth Sciences Fri, 12 Jun 2026 18:40:01 EDT news700413636 During an abrupt global cold snap nearly 13,000 years ago, the Gulf Stream ocean current shifted farther north, temporarily disrupting eastern Canada's oceanic ecosystems, a process that could happen again as the climate changes, a new study by UCL researchers finds. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-gulf-stream-shifted-north-year.html Earth Sciences Fri, 12 Jun 2026 16:40:01 EDT news700413549 Hilly and mountainous landscapes have a much greater ability to store carbon in the soil than previously thought, according to a new study co-led by scientists at the University of Oregon. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-mountainous-landscapes-carbon-previously-thought.html Earth Sciences Fri, 12 Jun 2026 14:00:03 EDT news700387741 In a new study, Professor Shin Sugiyama of Hokkaido University and his team have directly confirmed for the first time that water from melting snow and ice, or meltwater, found at the surface of a glacier can drain to its base, causing glaciers in Antarctica to speed up and move toward the ocean. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-meltwater-antarctic-glaciers-faster-ocean.html Earth Sciences Fri, 12 Jun 2026 10:40:04 EDT news700473481 New research shows surface melting across Antarctica is set to intensify and spread dramatically over the 21st century, with melt increasing 10-fold and the affected area growing by more than 10% by 2100 if global temperatures continue to rise. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-antarctic-surface-tenfold-century-south.html Earth Sciences Fri, 12 Jun 2026 08:40:03 EDT news700472101 Planetary heating is intensifying and key climate indicators are deteriorating, top scientists said Thursday, warning that funding decisions affecting Earth observation systems in the United States and other countries threaten efforts to track global warming. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-human-driven-139c-15c.html Earth Sciences Thu, 11 Jun 2026 16:40:09 EDT news700404026 In 2023, Cyclone Gabrielle triggered an estimated 800,000 landslides across the North Island, making it one of the most extreme landslide events ever recorded. New research by Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury (UC) and Earth Sciences New Zealand suggests that under a warmer climate, future storms similar to Cyclone Gabrielle could be even more extreme, triggering tens of thousands more landslides across parts of the North Island and highlighting the need for targeted planning in vulnerable areas. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-cyclone-gabrielle-style-storms-unleash.html Earth Sciences Thu, 11 Jun 2026 14:40:03 EDT news700400581 A new study finds that burning 500,000 acres (202,000 hectares) of California conifer forests each year with prescribed fire could cut deadly pollution from wildfire smoke by roughly 10% over a decade. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-pollution-years-miles-areas.html Earth Sciences Thu, 11 Jun 2026 14:00:04 EDT news700303681 In a new paper published in Science, leading scientists and climate policy experts show that 15% of current global warming (0.3°C) from human emissions stems from pollutants that fall outside most existing climate policy frameworks. Most of these overlooked pollutants are called "indirect greenhouse gases" and include carbon monoxide, non-methane volatile organic compounds, nitrogen oxides and molecular hydrogen. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-overlooked-pollutants-responsible-current-global.html Earth Sciences Thu, 11 Jun 2026 14:00:01 EDT news700389361 Researchers combining two methods to reconstruct the rupture evolution of the July 2025 magnitude 8.8 Kamchatka earthquake found the rupture from the megathrust event extended about 500 kilometers (311 miles) from its epicenter. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-massive-kamchatka-earthquake-rupture-overlaps.html Earth Sciences Thu, 11 Jun 2026 11:20:09 EDT news700392001 Climate change could make historically rare tropical storms in Southern California produce significantly more precipitation in the next few decades, and when they strike, landslides are likely to become a bigger risk across the region, according to new research in Nature Climate Change. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-hurricane-rainfall-landslide-southern-california.html Earth Sciences Wed, 10 Jun 2026 18:10:06 EDT news700328341 Strong and consistent evidence shows that the entire climate system is continuing to heat, driving rapid global warming. Human activities pushed global warming to 1.37°C in 2025, and its level is projected to surpass 1.5°C in about four years. Crucially, the rate at which heat is accumulating in Earth's system suggests high levels of future warming. These are some of the key findings from the latest Indicators of Global Climate Change (IGCC) report, published in Earth System Science Data. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-global-137c-earth-accumulating.html Earth Sciences Wed, 10 Jun 2026 18:10:01 EDT news700241521 For almost a century, researchers have known that vertical land motion—the lifting and sinking of the ground—affects sea level locally. As the ground sinks, the sea level rises relative to the land. Scientists also assumed this process generally occurred at a steady rate over time. But a research team that includes Thomas Wahl, a UCF researcher and associate professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering, has found that ground subsidence has undergone phases of variable change, creating significant implications for coastal communities. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-coastal-shifts-reveal-faster-local.html Earth Sciences Wed, 10 Jun 2026 17:50:02 EDT news700328101 Ice-age sea-level declines may have turned seafloor volcanoes into natural iron fertilizer for plankton, potentially enhancing ocean carbon storage, Boston College researchers report in the journal Nature Geoscience. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ice-age-sea-falls-seafloor.html Earth Sciences Wed, 10 Jun 2026 15:40:02 EDT news700314301 Human-caused sea-level rise has significantly increased the frequency of extreme coastal flooding worldwide, according to a new study led by a Tulane University researcher. The research, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, found that coastal flooding events expected only once every 100 years are now, on average, about 12 times more likely to occur. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-extreme-coastal-surges-worldwide-seas.html Earth Sciences Wed, 10 Jun 2026 14:00:09 EDT news700235461 The number of icebergs in the Arctic has increased sharply since the 2000s. This is due to the destabilization of large glaciers in northeast Greenland and parts of the Russian Arctic, as well as the increasing mobility of sea ice. The result: Stones rain down from the melting icebergs, forming new hard-substrate habitats for marine life on the soft seafloor. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-retreating-glaciers-iceberg-sightings-reshape.html Earth Sciences Wed, 10 Jun 2026 11:00:09 EDT news700216621 Human activities have significantly altered the freshwater cycle, threatening its ability to support vital climatic and ecological Earth system processes. A new study led by researchers at the University of Eastern Finland shows that the freshwater cycle has increasingly moved away from a stable state due to climate change and large-scale water and land use. The newly published study updates the status of the freshwater change planetary boundary, which is one of the core components in the annual Planetary Health Check reports. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-freshwater-boundary-breach-deepens-climate.html Earth Sciences Tue, 09 Jun 2026 19:20:03 EDT news700242601 The first few billion years of Earth's history saw the rise of life, the atmosphere and the oceans. Still, that time is shrouded in mystery: Not many rocks remain that preserve a record of those early iterations of our modern world. Dynamic geologic processes like erosion, subduction and burial mean the surface is constantly being reshaped, and older rocks aren't very common. But that time period is critical to understanding our own origins and how catastrophic events like asteroid impacts might have affected early life on the planet. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-scientists-billion-year-asteroid-impact.html Earth Sciences Tue, 09 Jun 2026 16:00:06 EDT news700233527 Researchers at Geosciences Barcelona (GEO3BCN-CSIC) have developed a novel way to monitor the silent accumulation of volcanic gases beneath Earth's surface using seismic ambient noise. The results could significantly improve early warning systems for volcanic eruptions. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-silent-volcanic-gas-buildup-revealed.html Earth Sciences Tue, 09 Jun 2026 14:40:04 EDT news700229762 Following the devastating urban fire that broke out in Wajima City after Japan's 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake, investigators struggled to identify a clear ignition source, despite widespread destruction and unusual reports of flames emerging from areas with no visible combustible material. While previous studies have linked earthquakes to secondary disasters such as tsunamis and infrastructure failures, the possible role of underground methane release has remained poorly understood. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-seismic-champagne-effect-earthquakes.html Earth Sciences Tue, 09 Jun 2026 14:20:04 EDT news700229701 Ocean currents are not just horizontal motions that flow from side to side. There are also vertical currents that act like deep-sea elevators, pushing heat and carbon down into the deep, while bringing up vital nutrients and dissolved gases to the surface. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-satellite-reveal-southern-ocean-vertical.html Earth Sciences Tue, 09 Jun 2026 13:50:02 EDT news700230994 Our novel artificial intelligence model can predict extreme storm surges with high accuracy, including under future climate conditions. Because the AI model runs much faster, it can help researchers and practitioners better assess coastal flood risk for adaptation planning. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ai-coastal-cities-seas-extreme.html Earth Sciences Tue, 09 Jun 2026 12:40:01 EDT news700223161