https://phys.org/earth-news/earth-sciences/ en-us The latest news on earth sciences and the environment 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 When it comes to compounding natural hazards like landslides, wildfires, flooding and extreme heat, where you live makes all the difference. New research from Portland State University underscores this disproportionate reality, finding that in Portland, the areas most vulnerable to multiple climate hazards are historically underinvested neighborhoods marked by lower median incomes, lower levels of education and greater racial diversity. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-hazards-converge-east-portland-underinvestment.html Earth Sciences Fri, 14 Aug 2026 11:20:06 EDT news705924916 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 Imagine you wake up one morning and look out your window. You see a red sky, hear a ferocious blast of wind and watch as tree branches creak and crack. No, the apocalypse has not descended on your local neighborhood. You've just been caught in the middle of a dust storm. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-red-skies-lost-solar-power.html Earth Sciences Fri, 14 Aug 2026 08:10:01 EDT news705909958 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 The U.K.'s pothole problem could one day be tackled from beneath the road surface as researchers at the University of Surrey launch a pioneering trial that uses heat stored underground to keep roads cooler in summer, warmer in winter and less prone to damage. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-geothermal-roads-potholes-trial-aims.html Earth Sciences Thu, 13 Aug 2026 08:20:02 EDT news705821609 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 A team of paleontologists from China University of Geosciences (Beijing) studying penguin fossils from Seymour Island off the Antarctic Peninsula have demonstrated how ancient bird bones can act as chemical archives of past climate change. The researchers used nondestructive X-ray mapping to examine the elemental composition of penguin remains spanning millions of years. They uncovered key insights into how Antarctica shifted from a warm, humid environment to a cooler world. The work is published in the journal Fossil Record. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ancient-penguin-fossils-window-antarctica.html Earth Sciences Wed, 12 Aug 2026 14:20:03 EDT news705759482 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 On a perfect, crisp fall day with blue skies, scientists in yellow safety coats gather in the sprawling desert north of Reno. They watch as flames consume a burning bush and quickly spread through the surrounding grass. The fire is completely controlled and monitored by dozens of sensors as three enormous drones buzz directly overhead, following the curl of smoke as it dances in the light breeze. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-wildfire-ecosystems-term-recovery.html Earth Sciences Wed, 12 Aug 2026 07:50:01 EDT news705729818 With extreme weather increasing around the world, scientists are working to help critical infrastructure, such as water management systems, adapt. On the U.S. West Coast, where both periods of prolonged drought and intense atmospheric river storms are common, effective water management can be particularly tricky. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-framework-potential-reservoir-watersheds.html Earth Sciences Wed, 12 Aug 2026 07:30:01 EDT news705729758 Emergency workers attempting to rescue survivors after a recent earthquake in Kyushu, Japan, also had to cope with extreme summer heat. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-japan-earthquake-extreme-disaster.html Earth Sciences Tue, 11 Aug 2026 21:20:01 EDT news705678641 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 Locals and officials in Colombia have begun a massive search and rescue effort to find survivors of a powerful earthquake that struck near San José del Palmar in Chocó, with major damage observed in the cities of Cali, Manizales and Pereira. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-colombia-earthquake-destructive.html Earth Sciences Tue, 11 Aug 2026 11:00:05 EDT news705661862 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 Every monsoon, India's rivers turn brown. To most of us, that color simply means muddy water. But hidden within it is the material that builds fertile floodplains, creates river islands, nourishes deltas and even shapes coastlines: sediment. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-sediment-story-journey-impacts-india.html Earth Sciences Mon, 10 Aug 2026 18:00:03 EDT news705594643 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 Roughly 2.5–2 billion years ago, Earth's surface experienced the biggest chemical change in its history when oxygen became abundant in the atmosphere, eventually leading to the evolution of complex life forms such as plants and animals that emerged half a billion years ago. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-gases-ancient-global-explanation-billion.html Earth Sciences Mon, 10 Aug 2026 12:40:01 EDT news705581821 This summer, millions of people across the country have been digging out sunscreen to protect themselves from a record-breaking series of heat waves. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-people-unaware-environmental-effects-sunscreen.html Earth Sciences Sun, 09 Aug 2026 11:20:01 EDT news705309951