Category: Earth
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2023’s extreme storms, heat and wildfires broke records—a scientist explains how global warming fuels climate disasters
The year 2023 was marked by extraordinary heat, wildfires and weather disasters. In the U.S., an unprecedented heat wave gripped much of Texas and the Southwest with highs well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 Celsius) for the entire month of July. Historic rainfall in April flooded Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with 25 inches of rain in…
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Study shows how vertebrates shape the North Sea seafloor
The harbor porpoise pits model. We suggest the following model for the formation of the pits and pit-scours. Phase 1: Harbor porpoise acoustically search for buried fish (sand eel) using their sonar on a flat seafloor. Phase 2: Bottom grubbing similar to the one observed for dolphins and gray whales, resulting in decimeter to meter…
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Why Rivers Can’t Rescue Coastal Wetlands
A salt marsh in Barnstable, Massachusetts, shows signs of erosion and drowning as the sea level rises (December 2, 2022). Credit: Erin Peck Building up wetlands that are drowning under rising oceans remains a challenge, but scientists are now one step closer to identifying solutions. Amid climate change, large dam removal projects have gained attention…
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New study aims to reduce the time required to implement geologic sequestration sites for carbon capture
Boxes display the interquartile range (IQR); open circles display median values and solid dots display means; vertical lines display 5th and 95th percentiles; and horizontal lines display the full range of each distribution. Credit: Carnegie Mellon College of Engineering Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide, is one…
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Oceanography, sea floor mapping and satellite combine to map world’s strongest current
CTD rosette emerges from the deep with water samples photo. Credit: Mark Horstman From space to the sea floor, an Australian and international research voyage has mapped a highly energetic “hotspot” in the world’s strongest current simultaneously by ship and satellite, and uncovered an underwater mountain range. Halfway between Tasmania and Antarctica, the block of…
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Study finds atmospheric pollutants in São Paulo exceeded recommended levels even at the height of the pandemic
São Paulo city seen from Pico do Jaraguá, its highest point, on a day of temperature inversion during winter. Blue sky contrasts with dense pollution near ground level. Credit: Regina Maura de Miranda/USP People who live in São Paulo city in Brazil certainly recall an event that occurred on August 19, 2019, when dark clouds…
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Natural Gas is on the Move Under Permafrost
Deep under the surface of an Arctic landscape known as Svalbard, there is a massive amount of methane, a very potent greenhouse gas. New research reported in Frontiers in Earth Science has shown that this methane can move around underneath the permafrost that is trapping it, and it can escape. If there is a sudden,…
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Discovery of Massive Stars Stripped of Hydrogen Envelopes in Binary Systems
Can binary stars steal material from each other? This is what a recent study published in Science hopes to address as a team of international researchers examined how the interaction between binary stars can cause one star to strip material from its companion star over time, resulting in one massive star and one much smaller…
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When Is an Aurora Not an Aurora? Explaining Mysterious Phenomena Called “Steve” and “Picket Fence”
A normal aurora (left) consists of glowing curtains of red, green and blue. An enhanced aurora (right) contains a thin, brighter layer which exhibits much more green, possibly caused by the same physical process that creates Steve and the picket fence. Because enhanced auroras are more common, UC Berkeley researchers plan to probe them first…
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New Research Flips the Script on Forest Resilience
Recent research indicates that trees in wetter regions are more vulnerable to drought, challenging previous beliefs about tree resilience. This study, involving the analysis of over 6.6 million tree rings, reveals that trees in drier areas are surprisingly resilient to drought. The findings underscore the widespread impact of climate change on forests and suggest that…