Earth Sciences news

Greenland glaciers:  What lies beneath

Greenland glaciers: What lies beneath

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 15, 2009 | popularity 3.6 / 5 (5) | comments 1

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.


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 ...


Ecosystem, vegetation affect intensity of urban heat island effect

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 15, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

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 ...


Researchers from France and Turkey scanned the Marmara's seabed over six weeks

Underwater gas may hold clues on Turkey quake risk

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 15, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

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.


Study: Earth more sensitive to carbon dioxide than previously thought

Study: Earth more sensitive to carbon dioxide than previously thought

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 06, 2009 | popularity 3.1 / 5 (51) | comments 91

In the long term, the Earth's temperature may be 30-50% more sensitive to atmospheric carbon dioxide than has previously been estimated, reports a new study published in Nature Geoscience this week.


Fossils on the Edge of Forever

Fossils on the Edge of Forever

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (12) | comments 0

Astrobiologists have not yet found alien life on other planets. But the fossil record has evidence of aliens of another sort: the Ediacarans that lived on Earth millions of years ago.


Gravestones Talking through Time

Gravestones Talking through Time

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 08, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (8) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A visit to your local graveyard can provide not only a history lesson, but a science lesson as well. Historians know that gravestones can reflect the lives of people whose memories are lost ...


Portions of Arctic coastline eroding, no end in sight, says new CU-Boulder study

Portions of Arctic coastline eroding, no end in sight, says new study

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (9) | comments 4

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 ...


Laurence made landfall in Western Australia

Laurence made landfall in Western Australia

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 15, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

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 ...


Lightning

Lightning-produced radiation a potential health concern for air travelers

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 07, 2009 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (10) | comments 7

New information about lightning-emitted X-rays, gamma rays and high-energy electrons during thunderstorms is prompting scientists to raise concerns about the potential for airline passengers and crews to be ...


Irrigation decreases, urbanization increases monsoon rains

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 15, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

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.


A unique geography -- and soot and dust -- conspire against Himalayan glaciers

A unique geography -- and soot and dust -- conspire against Himalayan glaciers

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 15, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 1

"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 ...


Tropical Cyclone Mick forms quickly, hits Fiji in the southwestern Pacific

Tropical Cyclone Mick forms quickly, hits Fiji in the southwestern Pacific

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

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 ...


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.