http://www.physorg.com/space-news/earth-sciences/ en-us PhysOrg.com provides the latest news on earth science, astronomy and space exploration. In the long term, the Earth's temperature may be 30-50% more sensitive to atmospheric carbon dioxide than has previously been estimated, reports a new study published in Nature Geoscience this week. http://www.physorg.com/news179328817.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Sun, 06 Dec 2009 13:34:02 EST news179328817 (AP) -- The tsunami that killed more than 200 people in the Samoan islands and Tonga earlier this year towered up to 46 feet (14 meters) high - more then twice as tall as most of the buildings it slammed into, scientists said Friday. http://www.physorg.com/news179118002.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Fri, 04 Dec 2009 04:10:02 EST news179118002 (PhysOrg.com) -- The third in a series of papers in the journal Nature completes the case for a new method of predicting earthquakes. http://www.physorg.com/news179087953.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:41:47 EST news179087953 (PhysOrg.com) -- Hawaii may be paradise for vacationers, but for geologists it has long been a puzzle. Plate tectonic theory readily explains the existence of volcanoes at boundaries where plates split apart or collide, but mid-plate volcanoes such as those that built the Hawaiian island chain have been harder to fit into the theory. A classic explanation, proposed nearly 40 years ago, has been that magma is supplied to the volcanoes from upwellings of hot rock, called mantle "plumes," that originate deep in the Earth's mantle. Evidence for these deep structures has been sketchy, however. http://www.physorg.com/news179074389.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:53:40 EST news179074389 A new fossil species suggests that some land animals may have survived the end-Permian extinction by living in cooler climates in Antarctica. Researchers have identified a distant relative of mammals that apparently survived the mass extinction by living in Antarctica. http://www.physorg.com/news179001673.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:42:01 EST news179001673 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of Anglo-French scientists studying sedimentary deposits in the Bay of Biscay have concluded that Britain and France were separated by a "super-river" during three periods of glaciations, and they have produced a more complete picture of the process of separation than previously available. http://www.physorg.com/news178954083.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:30:01 EST news178954083 (PhysOrg.com) -- As the world`s seawater becomes more acidic due to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide, some shelled marine creatures may actually become bigger and stronger, according to a new study. http://www.physorg.com/news178904818.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:51:26 EST news178904818 A series of newly discovered pits in the bottom of the Hudson Canyon, 100 miles southeast of New York Harbor, may be a key ingredient for the abundant and diverse marine ecosystem in and around the canyon, according to research by scientists from Rutgers University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. http://www.physorg.com/news178903141.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:20:30 EST news178903141 In the film, 'The Day After Tomorrow' the world enters the icy grip of a new glacial period within the space of just a few weeks. Now new research shows that this scenario may not be so far from the truth after all. http://www.physorg.com/news178804829.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:30:01 EST news178804829 Intervals of regional warmth and cold in the past are linked to the El Niņo phenomenon and the so-called "North Atlantic Oscillation" in the Northern hemisphere's jet stream, according to a team of climate scientists. These linkages may be important in assessing the regional effects of future climate change. http://www.physorg.com/news178459644.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:10:05 EST news178459644 Imagine the Earth's crust as the planet's skin: Some areas are old and wrinkled while others have a fresher, more youthful sheen, as if they had been regularly lathered with lotion. http://www.physorg.com/news178381626.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:27:50 EST news178381626 (PhysOrg.com) -- New research on bacterial communities throughout six large Arctic river ecosystems reveals predictable temporal patterns, suggesting that scientists could use these communities as markers for monitoring climate change in the polar regions. The study, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition, shows that bacterial communities in the six rivers shifted synchronously over time, correlating with seasonal shifts in hydrology and biogeochemistry. http://www.physorg.com/news178280399.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:20:01 EST news178280399 A new study that reconstructed ocean temperatures from millions of years ago could provide new insight into how the Earth responds to climate change. http://www.physorg.com/news178272697.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:12:24 EST news178272697 A new study provides "incontrovertible evidence" that the volcanic super-eruption of Toba on the island of Sumatra about 73,000 years ago deforested much of central India, some 3,000 miles from the epicenter, researchers report. http://www.physorg.com/news178210720.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:59:10 EST news178210720 (PhysOrg.com) -- Using a technique normally used for detecting weak tremor, scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology discovered that the 2004 magnitude 6 earthquake along the Parkfield section of the San Andreas fault exhibited almost 11 times more aftershocks than previously thought. The research appears online in Nature Geoscience and will appear in print in a forthcoming edition. http://www.physorg.com/news178201188.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:50:07 EST news178201188 A new calculation of Europe's greenhouse gas balance shows that emissions of methane and nitrous oxide tip the balance and eliminate Europe's terrestrial sink of greenhouse gases. http://www.physorg.com/news178200670.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:12:17 EST news178200670 The East Antarctic icesheet, once seen as largely unaffected by global warming, has lost billions of tonnes of ice since 2006 and could boost sea levels in the future, according to a new study. http://www.physorg.com/news178122015.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:50:06 EST news178122015 From a devastating food crisis in Guatemala to water cuts in Venezuela, El Nino has compounded drought damage across Latin America this year. http://www.physorg.com/news177921078.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:50:11 EST news177921078 Arnie Miller, University of Cincinnati professor of paleontology in the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences, and co-author Michael Foote of the University of Chicago publish their research in the Nov. 20 issue of Science with their paper, "Epicontinental Seas Versus Open-Ocean Settings: The Kinetics of Mass Extinction and Origination." http://www.physorg.com/news177873594.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:23:28 EST news177873594 (PhysOrg.com) -- Much of our planet's mineral wealth was deposited billions of years ago when Earth's chemical cycles were different from today's. Using geochemical clues from rocks nearly 3 billion years old, a group of scientists including Andrey Bekker and Doug Rumble from the Carnegie Institution have made the surprising discovery that the creation of economically important nickel ore deposits was linked to sulfur in the ancient oxygen-poor atmosphere. http://www.physorg.com/news177863954.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:30:01 EST news177863954 (PhysOrg.com) -- Roughly 15,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, North America's vast assemblage of large animals -- including such iconic creatures as mammoths, mastodons, camels, horses, ground sloths and giant beavers -- began their precipitous slide to extinction. http://www.physorg.com/news177864298.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:45:49 EST news177864298 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new study of Antarctica's past climate reveals that temperatures during the warm periods between ice ages (interglacials) may have been higher than previously thought. The latest analysis of ice core records suggests that Antarctic temperatures may have been up to 6°C warmer than the present day. http://www.physorg.com/news177773495.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:32:16 EST news177773495 The oceans play a key role in regulating climate, absorbing more than a quarter of the carbon dioxide that humans put into the air. Now, the first year-by-year accounting of this mechanism during the industrial era suggests the oceans are struggling to keep up with rising emissions -- a finding with potentially wide implications for future climate. The study appears in this week's issue of the journal Nature. http://www.physorg.com/news177772960.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:23:43 EST news177772960 PIC=32536:left]Increasing temperatures at high altitudes are fueling the post-1950 growth spurt seen in bristlecone pines, the world's oldest trees, according to new research. http://www.physorg.com/news177608541.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:30:01 EST news177608541 A dangerous level of carbon dioxide and methane gas haunts Lake Kivu, the freshwater lake system bordering Rwanda and the Republic of Congo. http://www.physorg.com/news177606996.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:50:02 EST news177606996 Rising water temperatures are kicking up more powerful winds on Lake Superior, with consequences for currents, biological cycles, pollution and more on the world's largest lake and its smaller brethren. http://www.physorg.com/news177515344.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:53:30 EST news177515344 A state-of-the-art underwater robot called BOB may hold the key to protecting millions of people around Turkey's biggest city against a massive earthquake scientists say is all but inevitable. http://www.physorg.com/news177394319.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:40:01 EST news177394319 (PhysOrg.com) -- The latest image from the U.S./French Jason-2 satellite finds a strong wave of warm water heading toward the Americas, fueling El Nino. http://www.physorg.com/news177322493.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:15:31 EST news177322493 Russia, the world's largest country, has grown even larger recently thanks to an earthquake and a volcanic eruption in its seismically active far eastern regions, a scientist said on Friday. http://www.physorg.com/news177311648.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:14:50 EST news177311648 Satellite observations and a state-of-the art regional atmospheric model have independently confirmed that the Greenland ice sheet is loosing mass at an accelerating rate, reports a new study in Science. http://www.physorg.com/news177258173.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:23:32 EST news177258173