https://phys.org/earth-news/earth-sciences/ en-us The latest news on earth sciences and the environment Irrigation canals form a sort of circulatory system for global agriculture. Across the world, millions of kilometers of human-made canals carry water from lakes, rivers and reservoirs downhill to farmland. Canals are vitally important to human food production, yet many agricultural areas lack the means to monitor the ebb and flow of water through these waterways. This forces farmers and water managers to rely on scattered gauges, inspections and local reports to make decisions about water use. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-nasa-satellite-world-irrigation-canals.html Earth Sciences Wed, 30 Sep 2026 15:50:01 EDT news709998482 In 2025, along parts of Kamchatka's coast in Russia, a magnitude 8.8 earthquake caused a tsunami to surge nearly 20 meters (65 feet) above sea level. Yet across the Pacific, its waves were much smaller than those produced by the region's great 9.0 earthquake in 1952. How could the tsunami climb so high near the source yet have a comparatively modest impact far away? https://phys.org/news/2026-09-kamchatka-giant-earthquake-smaller-tsunami.html Earth Sciences Wed, 30 Sep 2026 08:40:05 EDT news709909032 While not quite a fatal attraction, the gravitational pull of the moon and sun creates tiny stresses on Earth that can trigger events known as slow earthquakes. These are movements along fault lines (fault slips) that release their energy gradually over much longer periods than ordinary quakes. Although they have been observed, exactly how these celestial bodies trigger them has been a relatively tough nut to crack. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-moon-sun-trigger-earthquakes-earth.html Earth Sciences Tue, 29 Sep 2026 14:00:01 EDT news709902367 Three much-loved glaciers in British Columbia are set to disappear completely within a few decades, according to a Simon Fraser University study. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-history-identity-bc-glaciers-brink.html Earth Sciences Tue, 29 Sep 2026 12:40:01 EDT news709902383 Climate patterns in the tropics help determine how much snow falls from year to year in Antarctica, one of the coldest, windiest and driest places on Earth. New research from the University of Utah shows that tropical conditions and the oceans also influence the continent's massive ice sheets. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-tropical-weather-patterns-west-antarctic.html Earth Sciences Tue, 29 Sep 2026 12:00:12 EDT news709897321 The South Asian summer monsoon has long been known to shape the Mediterranean climate thousands of kilometers away as part of a phenomenon known as the "monsoon–desert" mechanism. Through this mechanism, intense monsoon convection during the summer releases large amounts of heat into the atmosphere, triggering large-scale circulation changes that promote sinking air over the Mediterranean. This process suppresses clouds and rainfall and contributes to the Mediterranean region's hot, dry climate. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-weakens-asian-monsoon-mediterranean.html Earth Sciences Tue, 29 Sep 2026 10:00:02 EDT news709891191 Extending some 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) along the length of Italy, the Apennine Mountains present a challenging puzzle for geologists. In some places, the mountains are steadily being stretched apart, while in regions just tens of kilometers away, they are squeezing together. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-crust-beneath-italy-apennines-mountains.html Earth Sciences Tue, 29 Sep 2026 09:40:12 EDT news709811036 Lakes may cover only a small fraction of Earth's surface, but new research suggests they play a bigger role in regulating the planet's climate than previously recognized. By reflecting sunlight back into space when covered in snow and ice, lakes in the Northern Hemisphere have a stronger cooling effect than the surrounding land. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-overlooked-lakes-northern-hemisphere-cool.html Earth Sciences Tue, 29 Sep 2026 08:00:07 EDT news709549225 Weather forecasts in the Southern Hemisphere (SH) are generally less accurate than those in the Northern Hemisphere because Antarctica and the surrounding Southern Ocean have relatively few weather observations. With limited information about atmospheric conditions in one of the world's most remote regions, forecasting models often struggle to predict the movement of weather systems. This is especially true for atmospheric rivers that can trigger heavy rain, snowfall, flooding and strong winds across Australia, New Zealand, South America and Antarctica. Improving forecasts of these weather systems is essential for protecting lives and property, supporting aviation and shipping, and helping communities prepare for hazardous weather. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-antarctic-radar-southern-hemisphere-atmospheric.html Earth Sciences Mon, 28 Sep 2026 03:00:02 EDT news709552350 When we think of a volcanic eruption, rivers of glowing lava or giant columns of ash come to mind. But beneath Earth's surface, a more complex story is unfolding. Magma deep within volcanoes is more than molten rock. It is a thick mixture of melted rock and solid mineral crystals known as "magma mush". To picture it, imagine a semi-frozen granita: a slushy blend of solid ice crystals suspended in sweet liquid syrup. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-volcanic-crystals-black-tracking-magma.html Earth Sciences Sun, 27 Sep 2026 15:00:01 EDT news709471362 When Pliny the Younger recorded his firsthand experience of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius 2,000 years ago—a cataclysm that buried Pompeii and killed his uncle, Pliny the Elder—he provided enough detail about the date to allow scientists to benchmark methods for dating volcanic eruptions. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-pompeii-destruction-calibrate-volcanic-dating.html Earth Sciences Fri, 25 Sep 2026 14:00:12 EDT news709388799 Returning global temperatures to a climate target does not necessarily undo the damage caused by exceeding it, new Concordia-led research published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment finds. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-climate-overshoot-impacts-global-temperatures.html Earth Sciences Fri, 25 Sep 2026 10:20:05 EDT news709547222 Dryland ecosystems cover 40% of the Earth's land surface and support more than 2 billion people. According to a new study published in Nature Climate Change, they're becoming increasingly unstable. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-satellite-expose-escalating-boom-dynamic.html Earth Sciences Fri, 25 Sep 2026 10:00:02 EDT news709544962 Coastal flooding may seem unpredictable, a natural disaster that occurs randomly. But UCF researcher Ivan Haigh has found that recurrent coastal floods occur at highly predictable times. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-coastal-reveals.html Earth Sciences Thu, 24 Sep 2026 17:50:05 EDT news709490281 As Arctic sea ice retreats, new shipping routes, expanding resource development and growing geopolitical competition are transforming one of the world's least-monitored regions. Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory have established one of the first long-term acoustic baselines for the Arctic's underwater soundscape. This work strengthens the detection and interpretation of earthquakes, underwater and nearshore detonations, ship traffic and other events of national security interest. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-scientists-arctic-global.html Earth Sciences Thu, 24 Sep 2026 17:40:05 EDT news709468682 On the surface, the arid expanses of the Mojave Desert may seem inhospitable and largely removed from the global carbon cycle. But beneath the surface, its mineral-rich soils are running a carbon cycle of their own—one that could account for a surprisingly large share of the planet's annual carbon exchange. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-scientists-carbon-minerals.html Earth Sciences Thu, 24 Sep 2026 15:40:01 EDT news709464742 In August 2026, an iceberg the size of Manhattan broke away from the Petermann Ice Shelf in northern Greenland. It was the glacier's largest calving event since 2020. Long before the breakup, CIRES scientists were developing a new method to understand the planet's first known ice shelf estuary on the Petermann Ice Shelf. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-greenland-ice-shelf-weakened-estuary.html Earth Sciences Thu, 24 Sep 2026 13:20:08 EDT news709463401 In 2022, the eruption and collapse of an underwater volcano in Tonga caused a devastating tsunami that killed four people, disrupted seafloor ecosystems and damaged critical seafloor telecommunications cables. It was one of the most powerful volcanic events this century. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-scientists-reconstruct-century-explosive-volcanic.html Earth Sciences Thu, 24 Sep 2026 12:10:01 EDT news709465793 You might think the length of a day never varies—exactly 24 hours. You'd be wrong, at least if you count days in milliseconds, as physicists do. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-earth-deep-secret-day-isnt.html Earth Sciences Thu, 24 Sep 2026 12:00:11 EDT news709460884 The bright orange plumes of water scientists first noticed billowing across a river in Alaska's Brooks Range in 2018 were even more acidic and metallic than water leached from metal mines, despite their pristine surroundings. That's according to a new University of California, Davis, study of six affected watersheds. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-alaska-orange-rivers-metallic-acid.html Earth Sciences Thu, 24 Sep 2026 11:08:11 EDT news709466821 Solar farms built around China's Gobi Desert could have the unexpected benefit of reducing the dust pollution reaching cities across northern China. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-solar-farms-generate-energy-pollution.html Earth Sciences Thu, 24 Sep 2026 10:40:07 EDT news709460358 New research from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in collaboration with other institutions, highlights the fragmented and staggered timing of warming increases across the planet, providing a nuanced perspective on the debate over global-warming acceleration. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-unevenness-global-regional-speedups-emerge.html Earth Sciences Wed, 23 Sep 2026 15:40:07 EDT news709392721 Earth's climate has undergone dramatic changes throughout its history, but new research suggests those changes may not have been as random as previously thought. A study led by an international team of researchers, including University of New Mexico paleobiologist Corinne "Cori" Myers, found that Earth's climate over the past 539 million years tended to remain within a small number of recurring climate states. The research also found that periods of elevated extinction, including the five major mass extinction events in Earth's history, frequently occurred as the planet transitioned between those states. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-earth-shifted-mega-climate-states.html Earth Sciences Wed, 23 Sep 2026 15:00:07 EDT news709385821 If someone leaves the faucet running in your bathroom and the house floods, it's easy to assign responsibility for the damage. But for other disasters—bigger, more complicated and costlier ones—the link between cause and effect isn't as clear. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-emissions-polluters-planet-warmer-decades.html Earth Sciences Wed, 23 Sep 2026 14:00:10 EDT news709375621 The seafloor is more than just the ground beneath the sea. Two-thirds of Earth's surface is covered by oceans, which have an average depth of almost 4 kilometers (2.5 miles). For a long time, the seafloor's remoteness protected it from widespread human disturbance. But that is changing: Bottom trawling now reaches depths of around 4,000 meters (13,100 feet) and already disturbs up to 2% of the global seafloor each year. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-healthy-seafloor-earth.html Earth Sciences Wed, 23 Sep 2026 11:40:08 EDT news709374843 In a discovery as broad and far-reaching as the Big Muddy itself, a new Yale–led study says farmers in the Mississippi River Basin are storing more carbon dioxide (CO2) in the soil than they emit when they add limestone to their fields, an agricultural practice known as "liming." https://phys.org/news/2026-09-adding-limestone-mississippi-river-basin.html Earth Sciences Wed, 23 Sep 2026 11:00:30 EDT news709373342 Tiny plantlike organisms called phytoplankton that form the base of marine food webs topped by orcas, whales and sharks usually get eaten or slowly sink to the seafloor, carrying carbon as they go. Across most of the ocean, the descent from sunlit surface layers takes weeks. But in the Arctic's Chukchi Sea, scientists have found that a convergence of currents pushes phytoplankton from under the ice to the seafloor at four times the usual speed. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-currents-arctic-sea-carbon-phytoplankton.html Earth Sciences Wed, 23 Sep 2026 09:00:07 EDT news709202328 Heat waves over land worldwide are beginning earlier, ending later and occurring over longer seasons, while the first heat wave of the season has recently shifted toward faster onset, according to a new study published in Nature Climate Change. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-earlier-faster-global-analysis-reveals.html Earth Sciences Wed, 23 Sep 2026 05:00:09 EDT news709292161 The origins of the earliest life on Earth, prior to the rise of oxygen and photosynthesis, remain a mystery. Graveyards in brine pools at the bottom of the Red Sea may hold some answers. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-briny-death-pools-clues-early.html Earth Sciences Tue, 22 Sep 2026 13:00:01 EDT news709290788 Recent heat waves in Europe have been intensified by the greenhouse gases emitted since nations committed to limiting global warming under the 2015 Paris Agreement, according to a Sep. 22 study published in Geophysical Research Letters. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-emissions-decade-europe-worse.html Earth Sciences Tue, 22 Sep 2026 12:20:02 EDT news709290651