Earth Sciences news

Oh, the Secrets Ice Crystals Will Tell!

Studying ice crystals to understand the cloud-climate connection

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (7) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Beginning in mid-December, scientists will undertake a special mission to squeeze the secrets out of ice crystals in cirrus clouds. The SPARTICUS, or Small Particles in Cirrus, campaign will ...


California's troubled waters: Satellite-based findings reveal major groundwater loss in Central Valley

California's troubled waters: Satellite-based findings reveal major groundwater loss in Central Valley (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

New space observations reveal that since October 2003, the aquifers for California's primary agricultural region - the Central Valley - and its major mountain water source - the Sierra Nevada - have lost nearly ...


A view of the Swiss Alps at Matterhorn

Sunshine speeded 1940s Swiss glacier melt: scientists

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 4

A surge in sunshine more than 60 years ago helped Swiss mountain glaciers melt faster than today, even though warmer average temperatures are being recorded now, Swiss researchers said Monday.


Going vertical: Fleeing tsunamis by moving up, not out

Going vertical: Fleeing tsunamis by moving up, not out

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- In the minutes after a strong earthquake struck offshore of the Indonesian city of Padang on Sept. 30, fears of a tsunami prompted hundreds of thousands of residents to evacuate the coastal ...


Yellowstone's plumbing exposed

Yellowstone's plumbing exposed

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (48) | comments 18

(PhysOrg.com) -- The most detailed seismic images yet published of the plumbing that feeds the Yellowstone supervolcano shows a plume of hot and molten rock rising at an angle from the northwest at a depth ...


A NASA satellite image of iceberg B17B (C), floating southwest off the West Australian coast

'Monster' iceberg shedding hundreds of offshoots

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (9) | comments 2

An island-sized iceberg is breaking up as it drifts closer to Australia, producing hundreds of smaller slabs spread over a massive area of ocean, experts said Monday.


Tropical Cyclone 05B forms southeast of Chennai, India

Tropical Cyclone 05B forms southeast of Chennai, India

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 11, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Tropical Cyclone 05B has formed out of "System 96B" in the Northern Indian Ocean and is forecast to approach southeastern India by Sunday, December 13 and make landfall on Monday.


TRMM Satellite sees Cyclone Cleo coming to a close

TRMM Satellite sees Cyclone Cleo coming to a close

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 11, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Rainfall in the once-known Cyclone Cleo has really diminished over the last 24 hours, and the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite has confirmed it. Cleo is fading and the Joint Typhoon Warning ...


New Technology Allows Geophysicist To Test Theory About Formation of Hawaii (w/ Podcast)

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 11, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (4) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- If you've ever been to Hawaii, you probably spent your time enjoying the scenery of the beautiful islands, rather than wondering how they got to be there in the first place. But that's just what scientists ...


New discoveries could improve climate projections

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 11, 2009 | popularity 3 / 5 (3) | comments 0

New discoveries about the deep ocean's temperature variability and circulation system could help improve projections of future climate conditions.


Governments turn to cloud seeding to fight drought (AP)

Governments turn to cloud seeding to fight drought

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 10, 2009 | popularity 2.3 / 5 (3) | comments 2

(AP) -- On a mountaintop clearing in the Sierra Nevada stands a tall metal platform holding a crude furnace and a box of silver iodide solution that some scientists believe could help offer relief from searing ...


Climate projections underestimate CO2 impact

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 10, 2009 | popularity 2.8 / 5 (16) | comments 2

The climate may be 30-50 percent more sensitive to atmospheric carbon dioxide in the long term than previously thought, according to a recent study published in Nature Geoscience.


Cyclone Cleo back down to tropical storm status

Cyclone Cleo back down to tropical storm status

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 10, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Cleo has run into wind shear and it has weakened it from a cyclone to a tropical storm. Cleo's maximum sustained winds are now down to 69 mph, and expected to continue falling. NASA's TRMM satellite noticed ...


New approach to emissions makes climate and air quality models more accurate, major study finds

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 10, 2009 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (7) | comments 1

It's no secret that the emissions leaving a car tailpipe or factory smokestack affect climate and air quality. Even trees release chemicals that influence the atmosphere. But until now, scientists have struggled to know where ...


Earth

Earth's atmosphere came from outer space, find scientists

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 10, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (29) | comments 12

(PhysOrg.com) -- The gases which formed the Earth's atmosphere - and probably its oceans - did not come from inside the Earth but from outer space, according to a study by University of Manchester and University ...