New results about the temperatures of rock deep below the New Madrid Seismic Zone in the central United States shed light on the puzzling questions of why large earthquakes happened there in 1811 and 1812 and when they may happen again.
Even a small-scale regional nuclear war could produce as many fatalities as all of World War II, disrupt the global climate for a decade or more and impact nearly every person on Earth, according to two new studies by University of Colorado at Boulder, Rutgers University and University of California, Los Angeles researchers.
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are studying the environmental impact that unique patterns of deforestation in Rondonia, Brazil, have on the land and climate.
Small insects that inhabit some of the most remote parts of the United States are sending a strong message about climate change. New research suggests that changes in midge communities in some of these areas provide additional evidence that the globe is indeed getting warmer. Researchers created a history of changing midge communities for six remote mountain lakes in the western United States.
Carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels will produce a three percent reduction in the density of Earth’s outermost atmosphere by 2017, scientists predict. Recent observations have shown that the thermosphere, which begins about 60 miles above Earth and extends up to 400 miles, is becoming less dense.
New findings indicate that the aurora and other near-Earth space weather are driven by the rate at which the Earth’s and sun’s magnetic fields connect, or merge, and not by the solar wind’s electric field as was previously assumed.
Despite growing public alarm over the shrinking Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, it is small glaciers and ice caps that have been contributing the most to rising sea levels in recent years, according to a new University of Colorado at Boulder study.
In the first test of a new radar instrument, scientists have seen through more than a mile of Greenland ice to reveal an image of land that has been hidden for millions of years. Ohio State University scientists and their colleagues will use what they learn from the instrument, dubbed GISMO (for Global Ice Sheet Mapping Orbiter), to determine how global climate change will affect the ice.
By absorbing half of the carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere, the oceans have a profound influence on climate. However, their ability to take up this carbon dioxide might be impaired as a result of climate change. To determine their response to global warming, ESA has backed two projects that provide systematic data on key oceanic variables — color and temperature.
Beyond the immediate devastation of a large-scale nuclear war, a growing number of scientists are concerned about the aftermath of “nuclear winter,” which could result in famine for billions of people across the globe. On Monday, December 11, climate experts will discuss the long-term effects of atomic warfare at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical U nion (AGU) in San Francisco.