https://phys.org/earth-news/earth-sciences/ en-us The latest news on earth sciences and the environment Scientists have found evidence that a colossal cliff stretching thousands of kilometers across ancient North America may have exposed the heart of the Grand Canyon nearly a billion years before it was carved by the Colorado River. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-lost-mega-escarpment-ancient-usa.html Earth Sciences Tue, 18 Aug 2026 19:10:05 EDT news706267922 For all that day-to-day weather forecasts have improved, it remains a challenge to forecast events that might happen once in 1,000 years—like the deadliest heat waves. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-millennium-weather-events.html Earth Sciences Tue, 18 Aug 2026 18:40:03 EDT news706274461 The Kakhovka Dam in southern Ukraine was destroyed on June 6, 2023. The event unleashed a catastrophic flood that forced thousands of residents to evacuate their communities as water levels rose 10 feet (3 meters) above normal. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-rare-satellite-reveal-major-limits.html Earth Sciences Tue, 18 Aug 2026 18:10:01 EDT news706289642 Growing up in New Jersey, Emily Wilson regularly passed tidal marshes without giving them much thought. They were part of the coastal landscape—stretches of green and blue she saw from the road. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-scientists-climate-benefits-tidal-marshes.html Earth Sciences Tue, 18 Aug 2026 16:50:02 EDT news706285417 A study led by a Montana State University research professor reveals how climate and hydrothermal activity have shaped the vegetation, wildfire and aquatic ecosystem histories of the Yellowstone Plateau over the past 15,000 years. The results of the project were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-yellowstone-droughts-geyser-wildfires.html Earth Sciences Tue, 18 Aug 2026 13:20:07 EDT news706270021 A team of researchers reports that they may have found rock containing some of the earliest forms of microbial life on Earth. Their study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, describes the biosignatures found in this 3.5-billion-year-old, carbon-rich, layered rock, called chert. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-layered-india-potential-microbial-life.html Earth Sciences Tue, 18 Aug 2026 12:30:02 EDT news706270423 In recent years, the Alps have experienced devastating glacier collapses: In September 2023, a section of the Marmolada glacier in the Dolomites collapsed, resulting in the deaths of seven mountaineers. Just over a year and a half later, in May 2025, the Birch Glacier above Blatten collapsed, keeping Switzerland and the entire world in suspense. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-fiber-optic-cable-reveals-hidden.html Earth Sciences Tue, 18 Aug 2026 12:00:12 EDT news706266841 The summers of recent years have been hot, but not unusual from a meteorological perspective. According to researchers at Leipzig University, though, the next extreme summer would far exceed anything we have experienced so far. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-drier-soils-late-summer-prolonged.html Earth Sciences Tue, 18 Aug 2026 09:20:01 EDT news706263241 A current system in the Atlantic Ocean that shapes regional climates and distributes ocean nutrients also serves as a control knob to help regulate temperatures across the planet, new research has found. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-weakening-atlantic-ocean-current-earth.html Earth Sciences Mon, 17 Aug 2026 18:10:01 EDT news706206001 Researchers from Cornell University have pinpointed the source of oxygen that sustains deep-sea life in the North Atlantic Ocean: the churning waters in the Labrador Sea. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-labrador-sea-key-player-oxygen.html Earth Sciences Mon, 17 Aug 2026 17:40:03 EDT news706190522 A new review led by professor Emese Bordy at the University of Cape Town (UCT) Department of Geological Sciences brings together more than two decades of research on the Karoo Supergroup, revealing how scientific understanding of this iconic geological archive has changed since 2000. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-gondwana-million-year-archive-karoo.html Earth Sciences Mon, 17 Aug 2026 15:30:01 EDT news706198442 Over 4 million hectares (9.9 million acres) of protected tropical forest—an area double the size of Wales—have been lost to wildfires since 2001. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-wildfires-destroyed-area-tropical-forest.html Earth Sciences Fri, 14 Aug 2026 16:00:01 EDT news705925203 According to a new study led by researchers from Brazil and Germany, the main system that transports heat from one end of the Atlantic Ocean to the other may undergo sudden changes in intensity driven by climate change similar to what we are experiencing now, even when it is already weakened. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-sediments-brazil-northeast-coast-reveal.html Earth Sciences Fri, 14 Aug 2026 13:00:04 EDT news705931022 Salt and sugar from the sea can rise as far as the free troposphere, thereby influencing both cloud formation and the Arctic climate. This is the finding of balloon measurements carried out by a team of researchers on Spitsbergen in autumn 2021 and spring 2022. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-arctic-balloon-samples-marine-sugars.html Earth Sciences Fri, 14 Aug 2026 09:40:01 EDT news705916225 There's good news and bad news for folks who love a good coat of ice on the Great Lakes for the activities and businesses it supports. The good news is that, after decades of declining annual average ice cover, there's reason to believe that trend could slow or even temporarily reverse. That's according to new research from the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research, or CIGLR, at the University of Michigan. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-great-lakes-ice-temporary-respite.html Earth Sciences Thu, 13 Aug 2026 17:40:07 EDT news705846181 Animals struggle to cool down in extreme heat and high humidity, and heat stress is rising in many regions around the world. This is especially true for people in tropical countries, including populous India. In a new paper in AGU Advances, researchers characterize the extent of India's "uncompensable heat stress" and project how the problem could worsen in the future. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-india-uncompensable-stress-monsoon-season.html Earth Sciences Thu, 13 Aug 2026 14:20:05 EDT news705839127 Heat waves are not all created equal. While some bring dry heat that rapidly dries out crops, others carry a lot of moisture that can prevent sweat from evaporating off the skin. In new research published in the journal Science Advances, scientists have identified another type of heat wave that they call a "snow-eater." https://phys.org/news/2026-08-category-western-snowpack-faster.html Earth Sciences Thu, 13 Aug 2026 12:40:07 EDT news705832968 Satellite images can be used to estimate how much carbon forests store as aboveground biomass (AGB) and how biomass varies in different forests. In a study published in the journal Nature, a team of researchers affiliated with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), the University of Maryland, NASA and the Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri, Brazil, analyzed 16 million 2020 NASA-GEDI satellite estimates of biomass from forests in the Amazon, the Congo Basin and Southeast Asia. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-satellite-reveal-tropical-forests-differently.html Earth Sciences Thu, 13 Aug 2026 12:20:12 EDT news705840962 For several years, climate scientists have shown that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) could come to a halt if the world warms too much. New research from Utrecht University shows that this picture is incomplete: The pace of warming also determines whether the AMOC stays stable. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-rapid-atlantic-circulation-2c-slower.html Earth Sciences Thu, 13 Aug 2026 05:00:06 EDT news705752641 The iconic grassland savannas of Africa are geographically extensive and important for both local fauna and the global climate. But where did they come from, and how will they change in the future? Ongoing warming, rising CO2 levels and shifting rainfall patterns are likely to profoundly change these ecosystems. These effects are difficult to predict because they can alter ecosystems in competing ways. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-african-grasslands-million-year-earlier.html Earth Sciences Wed, 12 Aug 2026 19:40:04 EDT news705763783 With approximately one-third of the world's population living within a day's walk of a coastline, sea-level rise poses a serious global threat. Every centimeter of sea-level rise could displace 1.5 million people, and current estimates range from half a meter (1.6 feet) to 2 meters (6.6 feet) by the end of the 21st century—which means that potentially hundreds of millions of people could be affected. A more reliable prediction of sea-level rise is crucial to prepare coastal infrastructure and communities around the world for these changes. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-glacial-collapse-antarctica-sea.html Earth Sciences Wed, 12 Aug 2026 19:00:02 EDT news705763441 New research involving the University of Liverpool has provided comprehensive insights into the largest flood event in Europe over the past millennium—the flood traditionally known as "St. Mary Magdalene's Flood" of 1342. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-europe-worst-medieval-highlights-successive.html Earth Sciences Wed, 12 Aug 2026 16:50:04 EDT news705769501 Before tropical cyclones can significantly strengthen, they generally must first become vertically aligned, with their rotating centers stacked through the atmosphere. New research using nearly three decades of NOAA Hurricane Hunter observations identifies four features that can help a tilted storm become aligned and more capable of intensifying. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-hurricane-hunter-reveal-early-tropical.html Earth Sciences Wed, 12 Aug 2026 11:20:05 EDT news705746009 In the Arctic, weather plays a key role in determining how much ice covers the ocean. Arctic cyclones are one weather phenomenon with a significant influence, causing unusually warm and stormy conditions that typically lead to significant ice loss. These conditions last particularly long when several cyclones rapidly follow one another. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-arctic-cyclone-clusters-batter-sea.html Earth Sciences Wed, 12 Aug 2026 10:00:06 EDT news705743702 After a heavy rain, rivers often turn brown with sediment, sand, silt and soil washed from the landscape that play a vital role in shaping rivers. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-rivers-sediment-intense-worrisome-pattern.html Earth Sciences Tue, 11 Aug 2026 19:00:01 EDT news705679501 Researchers say a spike in temperatures during an ice age 304 million years ago could inform what climate scientists are learning about rapidly changing conditions today. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-late-paleozoic-ice-age-event.html Earth Sciences Tue, 11 Aug 2026 18:00:01 EDT news705672841 Salt marshes are coastal wetlands that are alternately inundated and exposed by tides. These marshes, like other coastal ecosystems, are hotspots of carbon cycling. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-radar-creeks-carbon-salt-marshes.html Earth Sciences Tue, 11 Aug 2026 15:00:05 EDT news705668881 Prediction is the goal and test of all science, one might argue. Meteorologists have been curious about the inherent limits of weather forecasting ever since the dawn of numerical weather prediction in the late 1950s. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-weather-theoretical-day-ceiling.html Earth Sciences Tue, 11 Aug 2026 02:32:13 EDT news705634316 A study led by Professor Jimmy Jiujiu Jiao from the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) and Professor Meng Li from Shenzhen University has identified microbial fermentation as the likely main pathway for ammonium production in sediments beneath the Pearl River Delta, helping to explain the region's exceptionally high natural groundwater ammonium levels. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-fermentation-emerges-key-pathway-ammonium.html Earth Sciences Mon, 10 Aug 2026 17:20:01 EDT news705593281 El Niños and La Niñas are the third-most dominant influences on Earth's climate, after the sun and the greenhouse effect. But they haven't been easy to decipher or to predict in terms of when they will happen and what exact effects they will have on the global climate. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-impact-super-el-nios-sea.html Earth Sciences Mon, 10 Aug 2026 16:00:08 EDT news705585565