Recent solar conditions indicate a persistent decline in solar activity‐‐‐possibly similar to the past solar grand minima, scientists reporting in AGU's Space Weather write. During such periods of low solar activity, the fluxes of galactic cosmic rays...
August 12, 2020
For the first time, scientists have used lasers to detect space debris in broad daylight. Prior to this, lasers could only be used to measure the distance to space debris during a few twilights hours. A new study proved that it is possible to use lasers in full...
August 10, 2020
Some scientists believe that an extraterrestrial impact, such as a meteor collision, caused global cooling around 13 000 years ago. However, a new study presents evidence left in layers of sediment showing that the event was most likely caused by volcanic eruptions....
August 09, 2020
A new study by Utah State University (USU) suggests that modern megaherbivores-- plant-eaters that weigh more than 1 000 kg (2 200 lbs)-- have the highest risk of going extinct among mammals, birds, and reptiles, just like what happened to their prehistoric...
August 06, 2020
Scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory conducted X-ray experiments to resolve the origin of rare, odd meteorites that have puzzled many researchers since they were discovered about 50 years ago. Also known as Type IIE iron meteorites, these objects...
August 06, 2020
An international team of researchers released the most detailed seafloor depth map of the Arctic Ocean. The map, which is the 4.0 version of the International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean (IBCAO), expands up to 19.6 percent of the submarine surface mapped...
August 02, 2020
Scientists developed a new physics-based technique that successfully predicted seven of the Sun's largest flares from the past solar cycle, out of a set of nine. With further improvement, the new model could be used to inform forecasters of these intense...
August 02, 2020
An international team of researchers published a new study providing new clues about how and where subduction begins on Earth, the process behind the deadliest volcanic eruptions. The Earth's largest earthquakes and most explosive volcanoes occur at subduction...
August 02, 2020
Crop yields for major crops such as apples, blueberries, and cherries across the U.S. are being limited by a lack of pollinators due to the decline of the wild bee population, according to new research, which was the most comprehensive study of its kind. Researchers...
July 30, 2020
Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) suggest that Snowball Earth-- a hypothesis proposing that the planet's surface became entirely frozen at least twice 700 million years ago-- might be linked to dramatic plunges in the amount of...
July 29, 2020
A recent study by the University of Hawaii examined the impacts of the 2018 Hurricane "Lane" and revealed that preceding moisture conditions brought by the storm exacerbated fire hazards, and both fire and rain severity were impacted by the hurricane...
July 26, 2020
USGS seismologists have detected deep long-period earthquakes beneath the dormant Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii at depths of about 20 to 25 km (12 to 15 miles) occurring with surprising regularity every 7 to 12 minutes. While low-frequency earthquakes are not unusual,...
July 26, 2020
Tropical cyclones in the Pacific can now be forecast up to four months ahead of the season with a new model developed by scientists from New Zealand and Australia. According to Dr. Andrew Magee from the center for water, climate, and land at the University of...
July 26, 2020
In a new study, scientists from the University of Liverpool in England traced back the strange behavior of the magnetic field in the South Atlantic region and found that similar anomalies existed as far back as 8 to 11 million years ago. The South Atlantic Anomaly...
July 26, 2020
An international team has found a new fault system in southeastern Nepal, with the potential to cause earthquakes in a densely populated area. The faults show that the front of the tectonic movement in the mountain belt is 40 km (25 miles) farther south than...
July 19, 2020
A group of researchers at the Lyell Centre in Edinburgh formulated a way to use math formulas to help forecast earthquakes. The team describes translating the movement of a particular type of rock to mathematical equations, leading to the development of a predictive...
July 19, 2020
Astronomers from Kyoto University's Graduate School of Science and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan have succeeded in detecting 12 stellar flare phenomena on a red dwarf 16 light-years away using the 3.8 meter Seimei telescope. This new instrument...
July 19, 2020
A new study suggests that the Moon is much younger than what was previously thought-- about 85 million years younger. Lunar rock samples collected on the Apollo missions are not old enough to confirm the normally accepted 4.51 billion-year for the Moon's age,...
July 19, 2020
Scientists revealed evidence of hundreds of ancient eruptions in New Zealand after reconstructing 350 000 years of volcanism across the North Island. These explosions would cause widespread havoc if they occurred in the present time. The researchers focused on...
July 19, 2020
Seismologists have discovered a volcanic conduit forming across the Dayoukeng area of the Tatun Volcano Group in northern Taipei, Taiwan. The team also found proof that Tatun volcanoes are still active-- if an eruption takes place, the volcanic conduit near...
July 18, 2020
A new study found that big glaciers were repeatedly present in most of the major mountain areas along the Mediterranean-- from Morocco in the west, to the Black Sea coast of Turkey in the east-- during the Pleistocene era, or the first epoch of the Quaternary period...
July 13, 2020
Astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics reported spatially-resolved observations of the regions of the Sun's magnetic field and flare-ejected electron activity, with the results suggesting that these kinds of spatial structures in the...
July 13, 2020
Seismologists at Caltech analyzed 10 years' worth of slow-slip events that result from episodic fault slip, like regular earthquakes, but only produce barely perceptible quakes in the Cascadia region of the Pacific Northwest. They found that this particular type...
July 11, 2020
Most volcanic eruptions occur at the bottom of the oceans, and modern oceanography has shown that submarine volcanism not only deposits lava but also emits large amounts of volcanic ash. For the first time, an international research group explained the mechanisms...
July 09, 2020
A team of geochemists based at the Florida State University-headquartered National High Magnetic Field Laboratory has discovered significant clues about the sections of the crust that vanishes back into the Earth. The researchers provided new evidence showing that...
July 09, 2020
A new study published in Nature Communications shows that previous changes in the direction of Earth's magnetic field reached rates that are up to 10 times larger than the fastest currently reported variations of up to one degree per year. The authors combined...
July 06, 2020
Astronomers have discovered the absence of a massive unstable star in the Kinman Dwarf galaxy using ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT). One explanation offered is the end of a luminous blue variable (LBV) eruption of a surviving star, with a mild drop in...
July 04, 2020
A new study suggests that the massive Okmok volcano eruption in Alaska in 43 B.C.E. may have caused a nearly two-decade power struggle that led to the fall of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire. According to records, the period was marked with...
June 28, 2020
In a new study, an international team of scientists provided the first conclusive evidence directly correlating deep Earth's water cycles, magmatic productivity, and earthquake activity. Water and other volatiles that are cycled through the deep Earth have...
June 28, 2020
The Sun's magnetic activity fluctuates in a rhythm of about 11 years, which is reflected in the frequency of sunspots. During solar maximum, huge sunspots and active regions appear on the surface of the star. Scientists have long been puzzled over the reason...
June 28, 2020
The eruption in Japan's Asamayama volcano in the year 1108 may have led to an extreme weather event that triggered severe famine in Europe, new research revealed. The study is based in part on the research team's analysis of ice cores extracted from glaciers...
June 28, 2020
Scientists at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology in Russia along with colleagues from the Karl-Franzens University of Graz and the Kanzelhoehe Observatory, Austria have formulated a new automatic method for tracking coronal dimmings or traces of...
June 21, 2020
Geoscientists at the University of Texas at Dallas generated high-resolution, 3D images of the dynamic geological processes that are happening far below the Earth's surface. The team described in the study how they created images of mantle flows in a subduction...
June 21, 2020
The European Space AGency's (ESA) Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) has detected an unusual green glow for the first time in the atmosphere of Mars. According to the new study, the bright emission has been predicted to exist at Mars for around 40 years. "One of the...
June 21, 2020
A new seismological study found that a naturally-occurring injection of underground fluids triggered an earthquake swarm near Cahuilla, California, that lasted for nearly four years. The research shows an evolving understanding of how fault architecture drives...
June 21, 2020
A team of geophysicists warned that Wei Mountain in northeast China could be "recharging" for an eruption after two huge magma chambers were discovered under the volcano, which last erupted more than half a million years ago. The researchers said they...
June 17, 2020
Astronomers have discovered a potentially habitable exoplanet and its star-- both with striking similarities to the Earth and our Sun. The exoplanet candidate called KOI-456.04, which is about 1.9 times the size of ours, is at the right distance from its star, which...
June 14, 2020
In the Earth's equatorial regions today, the seasonal cycle of the monthly mean surface air temperature is less than 10 °C (50 °F). However, deep sand wedges discovered near the paleo equator in the Marinoan glaciogenic deposits at 635 million years ago,...
June 14, 2020
A new ultra-bright X-ray source has awakened after 26 years near our galactic neighbors the Magellanic Clouds. This is the second-closest ultra-bright X-ray source to date, with brightness more powerful than a million suns. The object, called RX J0209.6-7427, was...
June 14, 2020
Astrophysicists at Tohoku University in Japan have suggested a new theory for the origin of supermassive black holes using large computer simulations. The theory helps to further explain the massive number of black holes currently observed. Nearly every galaxy in...
June 14, 2020