Category: Earth

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Shifting water levels have driven a significant decline in navigation conditions in recent decades along the Mississippi River, a primary engine of commerce in the United States, research from the federal government and Princeton University shows. The researchers examined changing water levels along the 2,300-mile waterway from 1963 to 2020 and…

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain A pair of radar experts at Swedish Defense Research working with a meteorologist from the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute has found evidence suggesting that the reason the Ukrainian military was able to spot and sink a distant Russian missile cruiser during the early part of the Ukraine war was due…

Cross-plot of planktic MCA-LIA change point versus site latitude. Earlier LIA cooling at planktic records may imply earlier cooling at the northern than southern sites. Credit: Science (2023). DOI: 10.1126/science.adf1646 Heat transferring from the surface to the deep ocean in the North Atlantic helped reduce climate swings during the last 1,000 years, according to a…

Researchers reveal that North Greenland’s ice shelves have lost over one-third of their volume since 1978, mainly due to rising ocean temperatures. This loss threatens their role as natural barriers against ice discharge into the ocean, potentially accelerating sea level rise. A new study shows the largest floating ice shelves in North Greenland have lost…

The sulfate poor waters of Lake Superior could provide insights on the biochemistry of Earth’s early ocean. Credit: Alexandra Phillips Geochemist Alexandra Phillips has sulfur on her mind. The yellow element is a vital macronutrient, and she’s trying to understand how it cycles through the environment. Specifically, she’s curious about the sulfur cycle in Earth’s…

One year ago today, NASA’s Artemis I mission with its Orion spacecraft lifted off into the heavens and towards the Moon on its maiden flight aboard the mighty Space Launch System (SLS) at 1:47 am EST from historic Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The goal of the uncrewed mission was…

Credit: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2023), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO One of the world’s most active volcanoes, Mount Etna, erupted on Sunday—spewing lava and clouds of ash high over the Mediterranean island of Sicily. This image, captured on 13 November by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission, has been processed using the mission’s…

Credit: Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2023), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO One of the world’s most active volcanoes, Mount Etna, erupted on Sunday – spewing lava and clouds of ash high over the Mediterranean island of Sicily. This image, captured on November 13 by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission, has been processed using…

Volcano in Iceland. Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain As seismic activity intensifies ahead of an impending eruption of a fissure near Iceland’s Fagradalsfjall volcano, the island’s Reykjanes Peninsula is experiencing hundreds of earthquakes per day. Now, listeners can follow along through Northwestern University’s Earthtunes app. Developed in 2019, the app transforms seismic frequencies into audible pitches.…

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain The idea that we can mitigate current carbon emissions by “offsetting” them with carbon reduction initiatives elsewhere has become central to government and business responses to climate change. But it’s an idea we need to seriously question. Essentially, the offsetting strategy assumes the release of carbon stored by ancient biology a…