Earth Sciences news

Deadly heat waves are becoming more frequent in California

Aug 25, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (50) | 3

From mid July to early August 2006, a heat wave swept through the southwestern United States. Temperature records were broken at many locations and unusually high humidity levels for this typically arid region ...

Earth has warmed 0.4 C in 30 years

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Dec 11, 2008 | 4.3 / 5 (56) | 37

(PhysOrg.com) -- Half of the globe has warmed at least one half of one degree Fahrenheit (0.3 C) in the past 30 years, while half of that -- a full quarter of the globe -- warmed at least one full degree Fahrenheit ...

New Study Finds that Single Impact Killed Dinosaurs

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 28, 2006 | 4.2 / 5 (56) | 0

The dinosaurs, along with the majority of all other animal species on Earth, went extinct approximately 65 million years ago. Some scientists have said that the impact of a large meteorite in the Yucatan Peninsula, in what ...

Global warming greatest in past decade

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Sep 01, 2008 | 3 / 5 (79) | 73

Researchers confirm that surface temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere were warmer over the last 10 years than any time during the last 1300 years, and, if the climate scientists include the somewhat controversial data ...

Global warming predictions are overestimated, suggests study on black carbon

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 18, 2008 | 4.3 / 5 (55) | 48

(PhysOrg.com) -- A detailed analysis of black carbon -- the residue of burned organic matter -- in computer climate models suggests that those models may be overestimating global warming predictions.

Why is Greenland covered in ice?

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Aug 27, 2008 | 3.7 / 5 (63) | 14

There have been many reports in the media about the effects of global warming on the Greenland ice-sheet, but there is still great uncertainty as to why there is an ice-sheet there at all.

Greenland ice sheet larger contributor to sea-level rise

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Jun 12, 2009 | 4.4 / 5 (52) | 8

The Greenland ice sheet is melting faster than expected according to a new study led by a University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher and published in the journal Hydrological Processes.

Last time carbon dioxide levels were this high: 15 million years ago, scientists report

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Oct 08, 2009 | 3.6 / 5 (63) | 137

You would have to go back at least 15 million years to find carbon dioxide levels on Earth as high as they are today, a UCLA scientist and colleagues report Oct. 8 in the online edition of the journal Science.

Global sea-rise levels by 2100 my be lower than some predict, says new study

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Sep 04, 2008 | 4.2 / 5 (54) | 28

(PhysOrg.com) -- Despite projections by some scientists of global seas rising by 20 feet or more by the end of this century as a result of warming, a new University of Colorado at Boulder study concludes that ...

Mass extinction's cause: 'Sick Earth'

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Oct 21, 2006 | 4.2 / 5 (54) | 0

What really caused the largest mass extinction in Earth's history? USC earth scientists will reveal new clues at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Philadelphia Oct. 22-25.

Scientists reveal fate of Earth's oceans

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

May 10, 2006 | 4.7 / 5 (48) | 0

Scientists at The University of Manchester have uncovered the first evidence of seawater deep inside the Earth shedding new light on the fate of the planet's oceans, according to research published in Nature this week (May 1 ...

Global warming: Our best guess is likely wrong

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Jul 14, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (49) | 54

No one knows exactly how much Earth's climate will warm due to carbon emissions, but a new study this week suggests scientists' best predictions about global warming might be incorrect.

Ebb and flow of the sea drives world's big extinction events

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Jun 15, 2008 | 4.3 / 5 (52) | 4

If you are curious about Earth's periodic mass extinction events such as the sudden demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, you might consider crashing asteroids and sky-darkening super volcanoes as culprits.

Catastrophic flood separated Britain from Europe: study

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Jul 18, 2007 | 4.5 / 5 (49) | 0

A catastrophic megaflood separated Britain from France hundreds of thousands of years ago, changing the course of British history, according to research published in the journal Nature today.

Less ice in the Arctic Ocean 6000-7000 years ago

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Oct 20, 2008 | 4.7 / 5 (46) | 15

Recent mapping of a number of raised beach ridges on the north coast of Greenland suggests that the ice cover in the Arctic Ocean was greatly reduced some 6000-7000 years ago. The Arctic Ocean may have been periodically ice ...