Earth Sciences news

From Greenhouse to Icehouse

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

2 hours ago | 4 / 5 (2) | 4

A new study that reconstructed ocean temperatures from millions of years ago could provide new insight into how the Earth responds to climate change.

Supervolcano eruption -- in Sumatra -- deforested India 73,000 years ago

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

19 hours ago | 4.4 / 5 (12) | 2

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, ...

Intensive land management leaves Europe without carbon sinks

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

22 hours ago | 3.9 / 5 (7) | 0

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.

After mastodons and mammoths, a transformed landscape

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 19, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (12) | 1

(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 ...

Rich Ore Deposits Linked to Ancient Atmosphere

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 19, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (3) | 0

(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 ...

Paleontologists find extinction rates higher in open-ocean settings during mass extinctions

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 19, 2009 | 5 / 5 (1) | 0

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 ...

Mysteriously warm times in Antarctica

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 18, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (22) | 31

(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 ...

Oceans' uptake of manmade carbon may be slowing

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 18, 2009 | 3.8 / 5 (23) | 9

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 ...

QuikScat and Aqua providing important data on Tropical Storm Anja

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 18, 2009 | not rated yet | 0

Anja has continued to weaken over the last 24 hours, and NASA's QuikScat satellite has confirmed that the once mighty Category 4 Cyclone is now a tropical storm in the southern Indian Ocean. Two instruments ...

El Nino Could Play A Role In Colorado's Winter Weather, Scientist Says

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 17, 2009 | 2 / 5 (1) | 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- El Nino, a warming event of the tropical Pacific Ocean that affects weather patterns in the United States and elsewhere, has strengthened in recent months and already appears to have influenced Colorado's ...

Cyclone Anja hits wind shear, weakens drastically

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 17, 2009 | not rated yet | 0

This morning, Cyclone Anja was a powerful Category 4 cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Wind shear has now giving Anja a strong "punch in the gut" as the storm has weakened to a Category 1 cyclone.

Volatile gas could turn Rwandan lake into a freshwater time bomb

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 16, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (10) | 5

A dangerous level of carbon dioxide and methane gas haunts Lake Kivu, the freshwater lake system bordering Rwanda and the Republic of Congo.

Ancient high-altitude trees grow faster as temperatures rise

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 16, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (11) | 0

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.

TRMM satellite mapped 'Ida the Low's' rainfall from space (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 16, 2009 | not rated yet | 0

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite known as "TRMM" has the ability to measure rainfall from space, and assessed the heavy rainfall from last week's coastal low pressure area, formerly known ...

Terra satellite spots Tropical Cyclone Anja, the first of the southern season

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 16, 2009 | 3 / 5 (1) | 0

NASA's Terra satellite captured a stunning image of Anja, the first tropical cyclone of the southern Hemisphere cyclone season. When Anja formed on Saturday, November 14, in the Southern Indian Ocean, about ...

Optical properties of the Antarctic system and new radiation information

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 16, 2009 | not rated yet | 0

The Antarctic system comprises of the continent itself, Antarctica, and the ocean surrounding it, the Southern Ocean. In a study for a doctoral degree by geophysicist Kai Rasmus, University of Helsinki, Finland, measurements ...

Warmer means windier on world's biggest lake

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 15, 2009 | 3.8 / 5 (6) | 0

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.

Taiwan to boost quake warning system

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 15, 2009 | not rated yet | 0

Taiwan plans to build its first undersea seismic station, designed to improve the island's early warning system and save valuable seconds when earthquakes strike, officials said.