Gravitational tugs from Jupiter and Venus slightly elongate Earth's orbit every 405 000 years, an amazingly consistent pattern that has influenced our planet's climate for at least 215 million years. This pattern allows scientists to more precisely date...
May 08, 2018
Scientists have discovered planetary waves of vorticity on and inside the Sun similar to those that significantly influence weather on Earth. Rossby waves are a natural phenomenon in the atmospheres and oceans of planets that form in response to the rotation of the...
May 08, 2018
A new study suggests there is a likely link between the cyclic strengthening and weakening of ocean tides over tens of millions of years and another, longer cycle - the formation of Earth's supercontinents every 400 to 600 million years. The new research...
April 12, 2018
A joint research project of the Chronology Laboratory of the Finnish Museum of Natural History and Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) suggests that large volcanic eruptions in the years 536 and 541–544 CE resulted in unusually gloomy and cold period...
April 11, 2018
ESA’s Swarm mission is continually yielding more insight into how our protective shield is generated, how it behaves and how it is changing. Adding yet another string to its bow, Swarm is now tracking changes in the magnetic field produced in the oceans in...
April 11, 2018
According to a team of European scientists, solar tornadoes are not rotating after all. Their new analysis of these gigantic structures, each one several times the size of the Earth, indicates that they may have been misnamed because scientists have so far only been...
April 06, 2018
Smithsonian scientists have recently defined a new ocean-life zone, comprising of reef fishes, including numerous new species, that live well below shallow coral reefs. The new zone was named Rariphotic. The new zone was defined based on the unique fish fauna...
April 04, 2018
A team of seismologists has developed a new measurement of seismic energy release that can be applied to large earthquakes. Called the Radiated Energy Enhancement Factor (REEF), it provides a measure of earthquake rupture complexity that better captures variations...
April 04, 2018
Scientists from the University of Aberdeen have created the world's first 3D thermal image of an active volcano. The spectacular 3D image of Stromboli in Italy was made using high-precision cameras which are mounted to an aerial drone. The team of geoscientists...
April 02, 2018
With a 10-year average rainfall of almost 1 990 mm (78.3 inches) per year, the decade from 2006 to 2015 was Ireland’s wettest on record. This compares with a long-term 300-year decadal average of 1 080 mm (42.5 inches) per year, and 940 mm (37 inches), the...
March 27, 2018
University of Newcastle's (UON) fresh research found further evidence to support the notion that severe flooding events occur cyclically, challenging the widely approved assumption that floods occur randomly. The study is now raising questions about the...
March 23, 2018
An international team of scientists has uncovered evidence of one of the largest floods in Earth's history in the central Mediterranean seafloor. The flood, known as the Zanclean flood, is thought to have ended the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC), a period...
March 21, 2018
A new study published in Nature Communications this week reveals how atmospheric ions, produced by the energetic cosmic rays raining down through the atmosphere, helps the growth and formation of cloud condensation nuclei - the seeds necessary for forming clouds in...
December 21, 2017
Scientists have long known earthquakes can cause the Earth to vibrate for extended periods of time. However, in 1998 a research team found the Earth also constantly generates a low-frequency vibrational signal in the absence of earthquakes. Since then, seismologists...
December 08, 2017
Japanese researchers find predictive potential in underground changes associated with 2016 Kumamoto earthquake and subsequent volcanic eruptions. Most of what we know about earthquakes and volcanoes is based on what we can observe at the Earth's surface....
December 08, 2017
New research using data collected by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has revealed that a little-known exoplanet called K2-18b could well be a scaled-up version of Earth. Just as exciting, the same researchers also discovered for the first time that the...
December 06, 2017
An Australian scientist has created the most detailed map ever of clouds of high-velocity gas in the Universe around us. The map covers the entire sky and shows curious clouds of neutral hydrogen gas that are moving at a different speed to the normal rotation of the...
December 05, 2017
Earthquakes that happen in densely populated mountainous regions, such as the Himalaya, spell bigger earthquakes because of a fast tectonic-plate collision, according to a new study in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. Researchers from Geophysical Fluid Dynamics...
December 04, 2017
Why does the floor of calderas lift disproportionately without erupting? Researchers from UNIGE and Roma Tre used thermal and experimental models to explain one of the least-understood processes in volcanology: 'Caldera resurgence' A spectacular proof of our...
December 03, 2017
Slowly but steadily, an enormous mass of warm rock is rising beneath part of New England, although a major volcanic eruption isn't likely for millions of years, a Rutgers University-led study suggests. The research is groundbreaking in its scope and challenges...
December 02, 2017
Study by Beatrice Magnani, USGS and other SMU scientists shows recent seismicity in Fort Worth Basin occurred on faults not active for 300 million years. The study indicates reactivation of long-dormant faults as a consequence of waste fluid injection. Recent...
December 01, 2017
After analyzing a database of geological records dated within the last 100 000 years, a team of scientists from the University of Bristol has discovered the average time between so-called volcanic super-eruptions is actually much less than previously thought....
November 30, 2017
Although magnitude 6 earthquakes occur about every 25 years along the Parkfield Segment of the San Andreas Fault, geophysical data suggest that the seismic slip induced by those magnitude 6 earthquakes alone does not match the long-term slip rates on this part of...
November 30, 2017
Volcanic eruptions always seize the attention of climate scientists, because the sulfate aerosols formed in the volcanic plumes may stay months to years in the stratosphere - the second layer of the Earth's atmosphere - resulting in the increase of radiation...
November 29, 2017
A new study, led by a University of Bristol earth scientist, has shown that recently reported unexpected behavior on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, is due to its unique atmospheric chemistry. Titan’s polar atmosphere recently experienced unexpected and...
November 29, 2017
When mere seconds of storm warning could mean the difference between harm or safety, two researchers with Western University ties have developed a tornado-prediction method they say could buy as much as 20 minutes more warning time. These radar-based calculations...
November 29, 2017
For the first time, a science experiment has measured Earth's ability to absorb neutrinos - the smaller-than-an-atom particles that zoom throughout space and through us by the trillions every second at nearly the speed of light. The experiment was achieved with...
November 24, 2017
New research on oxygen and iron chemistry under the extreme conditions found deep inside the Earth could explain a longstanding seismic mystery called ultralow velocity zones. The findings could have far-reaching implications on our understanding of Earth's...
November 24, 2017
A new study, published this week in Nature, shows that thunderstorms can also produce radioactivity by triggering nuclear reactions in the atmosphere. This may sound like the plot of a blockbuster science fiction disaster. But in reality, it’s nothing to worry...
November 23, 2017
The first observation of a super-hydrated phase of the clay mineral kaolinite could improve our understanding of processes that lead to volcanism and affect earthquakes. In high-pressure and high-temperature X-ray measurements that were partly conducted at DESY...
November 23, 2017
Researchers using NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission (MMS) discovered tornado-like swirls of plasma create a magnetosphere tumultuous enough to let harmful high-energy particles from the Sun slip into near-Earth space. The discovery is important for...
November 23, 2017
When our Sun erupts with giant explosions—such as bursts of radiation called solar flares—we know they can affect space throughout the solar system as well as near Earth. But monitoring their effects requires having observatories in many places with many...
November 20, 2017
Climate scientists studying three decades of ozone measurements from seven satellites see a positive trend in global recovery after international efforts to curb ozone-depleting substances. The part of Earth’s atmosphere with high concentrations of ozone gas...
November 20, 2017
A temperate Earth-sized planet has been discovered only 11 light-years from the Solar System by a team using ESO’s unique planet-hunting HARPS instrument. The new world has the designation Ross 128 b and is now the second-closest temperate planet to be...
November 19, 2017
Productivity and stability of forest ecosystems strongly depend on the functional diversity of plant communities. UZH researchers have developed a new method to measure and map functional diversity of forests at different scales – from individual trees to...
November 19, 2017
The excess positrons arriving at Earth must have a more exotic origin than nearby pulsars, report researchers. Their results are based on observations from the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) gamma-ray observatory in Mexico, which detects the shower of...
November 18, 2017
Using more than half a century of observations, Japanese astronomers have discovered that the microwaves coming from the Sun at the minimums of the past five solar cycles have been the same each time, despite large differences in the maximums of the cycles. In...
November 18, 2017
Two new studies from The University of Texas at Austin have significantly improved scientists' ability to predict the strength and duration of droughts caused by La Niña - a recurrent cooling pattern in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Their findings, which...
November 17, 2017
An international team of astronomers, including a University of Southampton expert, has discovered a new type of explosion in a distant galaxy. The explosion, called PS1-10adi, seems to prefer active galaxies that house supermassive black holes consuming the gas and...
November 16, 2017
Proposals to reduce the effects of global warming by imitating volcanic eruptions could have a devastating effect on global regions prone to either tumultuous storms or prolonged drought, new research has shown. Geoengineering - the intentional manipulation of the...
November 16, 2017
In a recent interview with AgWeb, the president and CEO of Hackett Financial Advisors, Shawn Hackett, explains why he thinks our civilization will have to come up with new ways of growing food over the next 5 years. Read more