How the world's rivers are changing

The way rivers function is significantly affected by how much sediment they transport and where it gets deposited. River sediment—mostly sand, silt, and clay—plays a critical ecological role, as it provides habitat for ...

Defects in quartz crystal structure reveal the origin of dust

Global warming and a progressively drier climate in many parts of the world are causing more dust storms. To predict how these storms are caused, researchers are looking into the past to understand where the dust came from, ...

Seismic signals allow researchers to see under river ice

River scientists from Sweden, Finland and Germany report detailed measurements of sediment movement and water level in an ice-covered river using a novel technique—seismic signals. The results are published in the Journal ...

Microplastics accumulate in hotspots for deep-sea life

Research published earlier in the week reveals that microplastics often accumulate on the deep sea floor in the same place as diverse and dense marine life communities. This is because the same submarine sediment flows that ...

Cloudy waters

The Copernicus Sentinel-2B satellite captured this true-colour image on 5 February 2019, just three days after heavy rainfall in Rome and the surrounding area of Lazio, Italy. It shows sediment gushing into the Tyrrhenian ...

River deep: Einstein's contribution to earth science

Albert Einstein is famous for a lot of reasons, but the movement of sediments in rivers is perhaps not one of them. Yet, his name is associated with those of Ackers, White, and Shields who developed equations to help explain ...

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