http://www.physorg.com/space-news/earth-sciences/ en-us PhysOrg.com provides the latest news on earth science, astronomy and space exploration. The sea was heaving, the skies gray. The captain of the research ship was worried about the weather. About 120 miles off the coast of Spain, three Rutgers University scientists had a narrow window of opportunity to find and retrieve their prize -- an 8-foot, torpedo-shaped yellow robot that they had launched seven months earlier off the coast of New Jersey. http://www.physorg.com/news181123469.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Sun, 27 Dec 2009 09:30:01 EST news181123469 (AP) -- Fewer earthquakes have been recorded in the Philippines' lava-spilling Mayon volcano, but magma continues to build up inside and any lull in activity could be followed by a bigger eruption, scientists said Saturday. http://www.physorg.com/news181026251.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Sat, 26 Dec 2009 05:04:43 EST news181026251 Glaciers along the Gulf of Alaska are enriching stream and near shore marine ecosystems from a surprising source - ancient carbon contained in glacial runoff, researchers from four universities and the U.S. Forest Service report in the December 24, 2009, issue of the journal Nature. http://www.physorg.com/news180786023.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Wed, 23 Dec 2009 14:40:01 EST news180786023 The faint tug of the sun and moon on the San Andreas Fault stimulates tremors deep underground, suggesting that the rock 15 miles below is lubricated with highly pressurized water that allows the rock to slip with little effort, according to a new study by University of California, Berkeley, seismologists. http://www.physorg.com/news180785622.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:30:01 EST news180785622 (AP) -- Police and soldiers donned Santa hats and red clown noses and belted out songs in crammed evacuation centers in hopes of keeping 47,000 displaced residents from sneaking back to their homes on the slopes of a lava-spilling volcano. http://www.physorg.com/news180766368.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Wed, 23 Dec 2009 04:53:25 EST news180766368 In finding answers to the mystery of the origin of life, scientists may not have to dig too deep. New research is shedding light on shallower waters as a possible location for where life on Earth began. http://www.physorg.com/news180726917.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:40:01 EST news180726917 Monitoring the earthquakes caused from magma movements inside an active volcano could help to improve the accuracy of forecasting an eruption. http://www.physorg.com/news180725141.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:00:03 EST news180725141 A study of the structure and evolution of the Gulf of Corinth rift in central Greece will increase scientific understanding of rifted margin development and the tectonic mechanisms underlying seafloor spreading and deformation of the Earth's crust. http://www.physorg.com/news180713768.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:30:06 EST news180713768 (AP) -- Almost all of the 47,000 residents living on the slopes of a rumbling volcano in the central Philippines have moved to emergency shelters, and lava and earthquakes Tuesday heralded what officials say could be a major eruption. http://www.physorg.com/news180684624.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Tue, 22 Dec 2009 06:30:03 EST news180684624 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers are contributing to a new model of climate change that may give more accurate predictions of the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in Earth's future. http://www.physorg.com/news180632720.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:00:05 EST news180632720 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new JPL study examines the impact recent variability in climate is having on the surface temperatures of large lakes in California and Nevada. http://www.physorg.com/news180630986.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:30:02 EST news180630986 (PhysOrg.com) -- New research from scientists at The University of Manchester is set to improve predictions about climate and air quality - and make life easier for those suffering from respiratory problems. http://www.physorg.com/news180628222.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:30:58 EST news180628222 (AP) -- Philippine troops on Monday pressed the last 3,000 villagers who have refused to heed government warnings to leave the danger zone around a volcano that experts say is ready to erupt. http://www.physorg.com/news180594352.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Mon, 21 Dec 2009 05:06:42 EST news180594352 Researchers studying a period of high carbon dioxide levels and warm climate several million years ago have concluded that slow changes such as melting ice sheets amplified the initial warming caused by greenhouse gases. http://www.physorg.com/news180530639.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Sun, 20 Dec 2009 13:00:06 EST news180530639 (AP) -- The Philippines' most active volcano could have a huge eruption within days, officials warned Sunday after detecting a drastic surge in earthquakes and eerie rumbling sounds in surrounding foothills. Tens of thousands of villagers have been evacuated as a precaution. http://www.physorg.com/news180531928.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Sun, 20 Dec 2009 11:46:39 EST news180531928 A strong 6.4-magnitude earthquake hit off eastern Taiwan on Saturday evening, the US Geological Survey said, the biggest tremor to rock the island this year. http://www.physorg.com/news180507830.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Sun, 20 Dec 2009 05:04:51 EST news180507830 (PhysOrg.com) -- Computer simulations of thunderstorms using data from a field campaign in Australia confirm that the "ice-phase" cloud processes in climate models contribute most to the wide discrepancy between model results and actual cloud measurements.  This was a key finding from PNNL scientist Dr. Yi Wang and his colleagues from a recent study. http://www.physorg.com/news180371126.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:05:53 EST news180371126 (AP) -- Security forces in army trucks Friday sent about 3,000 residents outside the danger zone surrounding the smoldering Mayon volcano, which looked set for a major eruption after days of shooting ash plumes and spilling lava. http://www.physorg.com/news180341972.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Fri, 18 Dec 2009 07:00:22 EST news180341972 Oceanographers using the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Jason discovered and recorded the first video and still images of a deep-sea volcano actively erupting molten lava on the seafloor. http://www.physorg.com/news180289662.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:28:41 EST news180289662 (PhysOrg.com) -- A first-of-its-kind computer simulation that mirrors real-world observations of methane bubbling up from a seabed in the Arctic Ocean provides further evidence that warming oceans may unleash vast quantities of methane trapped in hydrate deposits buried beneath the seafloor. http://www.physorg.com/news180288229.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:05:17 EST news180288229 Although the center of Tropical Cyclone Laurence has been over land for two days, it's still holding together and bringing heavy rains and gusty winds to the northern coastal areas of West Australia and will do so into the weekend. Warnings and watches are still in effect in some areas as Laurence will continue moving west before re-entering the Southern Indian Ocean. http://www.physorg.com/news180279891.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:45:19 EST news180279891 Like an angry dog, a volcano growls before it bites, shaking the ground and getting "noisy" before erupting. This activity gives scientists an opportunity to study the tumult beneath a volcano and may help them improve the accuracy of eruption forecasts, according to Emily Brodsky, an associate professor of Earth and planetary sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz. http://www.physorg.com/news180210955.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:50:02 EST news180210955 Laurence is still a tropical cyclone even though the storm has made landfall in northern West Australia and is moving over land. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite noticed some powerful and high thunderstorms in Laurence before he made landfall, and the storm is still maintaining intensity for now, but that will wane as the storm continues to interact with the friction caused by traveling over land. http://www.physorg.com/news180204781.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:10:01 EST news180204781 Some geologic faults that appear strong and stable, slip and slide like weak faults. Now an international team of researchers has laboratory evidence showing why some faults that "should not" slip are weaker than previously thought. http://www.physorg.com/news180193925.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:40:01 EST news180193925 A new analysis of the geological record of the Earth's sea level, carried out by scientists at Princeton and Harvard universities and published in the Dec. 16 issue of Nature, employs a novel statistical approach that reveals the planet's polar ice sheets are vulnerable to large-scale melting even under moderate global warming scenarios. Such melting would lead to a large and relatively rapid rise in global sea level. http://www.physorg.com/news180192652.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:00:01 EST news180192652 Getting the most out of every drop of water is a high priority for grape growers in the southern Napa Valley, where summers are hot and dry and vines have to be irrigated to make it through the growing season. But Stanford researchers have found that a significant portion of the water applied to the vines zips right by the plants, hardly even pausing. http://www.physorg.com/news180182242.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:00:03 EST news180182242 (AP) -- The Mayon volcano, which has blown its top nearly 40 times in 400 years, menaced nearby residents with small eruptions of ash and lava Wednesday as Philippine authorities moved more than 30,000 people to shelters in case of a larger eruption. http://www.physorg.com/news180162582.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Wed, 16 Dec 2009 05:18:50 EST news180162582 NASA researchers studying urban landscapes have found that the intensity of the "heat island" created by a city depends on the ecosystem it replaced and on the regional climate. Urban areas developed in arid and semi-arid regions show far less heating compared with the surrounding countryside than cities built amid forested and temperate climates. http://www.physorg.com/news180120409.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:30:02 EST news180120409 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers studying carbon dioxide, a leading greenhouse gas and a key driver of global climate change, now have a new tool at their disposal: daily global measurements of carbon dioxide in a key part of our atmosphere. The data are courtesy of the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua spacecraft. http://www.physorg.com/news180119502.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:40:02 EST news180119502 Scientists who study the melting of Greenland's glaciers are discovering that water flowing beneath the ice plays a much more complex role than they previously imagined. http://www.physorg.com/news180116235.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:20:12 EST news180116235