http://www.physorg.com/space-news/earth-sciences/ en-us PhysOrg.com provides the latest news on earth science, astronomy and space exploration. (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 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) satellite has captured five complete polar seasons of noctilucent (NLC) or "night-shining" clouds with an unprecedented horizontal resolution of 3 miles by 3 miles. Results show that the cloud season turns on and off like a "geophysical light bulb" and they reveal evidence that high altitude mesospheric "weather" may follow similar patterns as our ever-changing weather near the Earth's surface. These findings were unveiled today at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union today in San Francisco. http://www.physorg.com/news180118771.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:20:02 EST news180118771 December 18, 2009, marks the tenth year since the launch of Terra, one of NASA's "flagship" Earth observing satellites. But the decade is more than just a mechanical milestone. With each additional day and year that the satellite monitors Earth, scientists achieve a lengthened record of Earth's vital signs. It's that record that helps scientists assess the health of Earth's ocean, land, and atmosphere, and determine how these systems are changing. http://www.physorg.com/news180116443.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:50:01 EST news180116443 Natural gas that lies under Turkey's Marmara Sea close to Istanbul could provide advance warning of an earthquake experts believe will hit the country's largest city, scientists said on Tuesday. http://www.physorg.com/news180113726.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:36:22 EST news180113726 New climate research reveals how wind shear -- the same atmospheric conditions that cause bumpy airplane rides -- affects how pollution contributes to isolated thunderstorm clouds. Under strong wind shear conditions, pollution hampers thunderhead formation. But with weak wind shear, pollution does the opposite and makes storms stronger. http://www.physorg.com/news180111002.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:51:08 EST news180111002 Tropical Cyclone Laurence made landfall in Northwestern Australia this morning (Eastern Time) December 15, 2009. NASA's Aqua satellite captured a visible image of Laurence just before the center of the storm made landfall at 0503 UTC (12:03 a.m. ET). The Moderate Resolution Image Spectroradiometer instrument on Aqua captured the image. http://www.physorg.com/news180104180.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:10:02 EST news180104180 (PhysOrg.com) -- For most of a decade, scientists have documented unfelt and slow-moving seismic events, called episodic tremor and slip, showing up in regular cycles under the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state and Vancouver Island in British Columbia. They last three weeks on average and release as much energy as a magnitude 6.5 earthquake. http://www.physorg.com/news180103695.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:48:55 EST news180103695 A Purdue University scientist has shown man-made changes to the landscape have affected Indian monsoon rains, suggesting that land-use decisions play an important role in climate change. http://www.physorg.com/news180101231.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:30:07 EST news180101231 The analysis of microfossils found in ocean sediment cores is illuminating the environmental conditions that prevailed at high latitudes during a critical period of Earth history. http://www.physorg.com/news180096839.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:30:01 EST news180096839 A new study of Pacific Ocean sediments off the coast of Chile has found that offshore waters experienced systematic oxygen depletion during the rapid warming of the Antarctic following the last "glacial maximum" period 20,000 years ago. http://www.physorg.com/news180096546.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:49:40 EST news180096546 "So many disparate elements, both natural and man-made, converge in the Himalayas," said William Lau, a climatologist from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "There's no other place in the world that could produce such a powerful atmospheric heat pump," referring to a new hypothesis he's put forward to explain the rapid retreat of Himalayan glaciers in recent decades. http://www.physorg.com/news180083985.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Tue, 15 Dec 2009 07:20:09 EST news180083985 Tropical Depression 05B is dissipating on the east coast of Sri Lanka today and over the next couple of days, but not before bringing some moderate and heavy rain over the next couple of days to some areas in Sri Lanka and the southeast coast of India, from Chennai, southward. http://www.physorg.com/news180040055.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:10:01 EST news180040055 The northern coastline of Alaska midway between Point Barrow and Prudhoe Bay is eroding by up to one-third the length of a football field annually because of a "triple whammy" of declining sea ice, warming seawater and increased wave activity, according to new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder. http://www.physorg.com/news180039688.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:50:09 EST news180039688 Tropical Storm Laurence tracked through Darwin Australia this weekend before sliding back into the Timor Sea and now Laurence is forecast to make a second landfall in Australia. Laurence is forecast to make landfall north of Wyndham then parallel the coastline while moving over land for the next couple of days. http://www.physorg.com/news180039538.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:00:03 EST news180039538 Tropical Cyclone Mick formed over the weekend in the southwestern Pacific Ocean and made a quick landfall over Fiji's main island of Viti Levu earlier today, December 14. Mick made landfall as a Category 2 Cyclone and brought heavy rains and gusty winds to the island. http://www.physorg.com/news180039050.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:51:33 EST news180039050 (PhysOrg.com) -- Hoping to help fix the Earth's atmosphere, Catherine Peters recently found herself 4,100 feet underground. http://www.physorg.com/news180034119.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:20:02 EST news180034119 (PhysOrg.com) -- Soot from fire in an unventilated fireplace wafts into a home and settles on the surfaces of floors and furniture. But with a quick fix to the chimney flue and some dusting, it bears no impact on a home`s long-term environment. http://www.physorg.com/news180035832.html Space & Earth - Earth Sciences Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:58:21 EST news180035832