While the moon lacks any breathable air, it does host a barely-there atmosphere. Since the 1980s, astronomers have observed a very thin layer of atoms bouncing over the moon's surface. This delicate atmosphere—technically ...
Planetary Sciences
Aug 2, 2024
1
225
Soils are among the largest viral reservoirs on Earth. Yet historically, soil viruses have been ignored. Recent work indicates the soil virosphere as a critical factor in human and environmental health, yet our understanding ...
Cell & Microbiology
6 hours ago
0
32
Caltech researchers have developed a new method to measure soil moisture in the shallow subterranean region between the surface and underground aquifers. This region, called the vadose zone, is crucial for plants and crops ...
Ecology
11 hours ago
0
16
Global atmospheric N2O concentration has surged by more than 23% since the pre-industrial era, rising from 270 parts per billion (ppb) in 1750 to 336 ppb in 2022. Approximately two-thirds of these emissions come from nitrogen ...
Ecology
Aug 2, 2024
0
6
Bigger antennas are better, at least according to researchers interested in geospatial monitoring. That's because higher resolution in monitoring applications requires larger apertures. So imagine the excitement in the remote ...
Planetary Sciences
Aug 1, 2024
0
16
As global temperatures inch upwards year after year, the world's glaciers retreat. These rivers of ice and the even larger ice sheets which cover Greenland and Antarctica are melting—and the melt is speeding up.
Ecology
Aug 1, 2024
0
0
Soil liquefaction that results in infrastructure damage has long been a point of contention for urban planners and engineers. Accurately predicting the soil liquefaction risk of a region could help overcome this challenge.
Earth Sciences
Aug 1, 2024
0
22
INPs are a rare subset of atmospheric aerosol that can initiate ice formation in clouds. There is a significant gap between scientists' ability to measure INPs and to predict their concentrations and variability in large-scale ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 30, 2024
0
1
Researchers from the Aerospace Information Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in partnership with international colleagues, made strides in mapping surface soil moisture across the globe. They combined ...
Environment
Jul 29, 2024
0
4
Changing weather patterns, like dry-wet and freeze-thaw cycles, significantly impact the release of harmful chemicals known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) from soils at e-waste recycling sites. Tiny soil particles, ...
Environment
Aug 2, 2024
0
1
Soil is a natural body consisting of layers (soil horizons) of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics. It is composed of particles of broken rock that have been altered by chemical and environmental processes that include weathering and erosion. Soil differs from its parent rock due to interactions between the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and the biosphere. It is a mixture of mineral and organic constituents that are in solid, gaseous and aqueous states. Soil particles pack loosely, forming a soil structure filled with pore spaces. These pores contain sol solution (liquid) and air (gas). Accordingly, soils are often treated as a three state system. Most soils have a density between 1 and 2 g/cm³. Soil is also known as earth: it is the substance from which our planet takes its name. Little of the soil composition of planet Earth is older than Tertiary and most no older than Pleistocene. In engineering, soil is referred to as regolith, or loose rock material.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
