Earth Sciences news

The shore of Deception Island in Antarctica, in 2008

Antarctic ice loss vaster, faster than thought: study

Nov 22, 2009 | 3.8 / 5 (52) | 45

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.

New Method to Measure Snow, Soil Moisture With GPS May Benefit Meteorologists, Farmers

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 20, 2009 | not rated yet | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- A research team led by the University of Colorado at Boulder has found a clever way to use traditional GPS satellite signals to measure snow depth as well as soil and vegetation moisture, a technique expected ...

International expedition investigates climate change, alternative fuels in Arctic

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 20, 2009 | 3 / 5 (1) | 1

Scientists from the Marine Biogeochemistry and Geology and Geophysics sections of the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) organized and led a team of university and government scientists on an Arctic expedition ...

Some 6,000 families were affected by the drought in the Chaco region of Paraguay, particularly indigenous populations

El Nino intensifies Latin America drought

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 20, 2009 | 5 / 5 (2) | 0

From a devastating food crisis in Guatemala to water cuts in Venezuela, El Nino has compounded drought damage across Latin America this year.

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Mysteriously warm times in Antarctica

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 18, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (26) | 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 | 3.9 / 5 (25) | 10

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.

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.

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 ...