Is There a Hidden Order to the Northern Lights?
April 29 — New observations suggest that, contrary to expectations, some of the colorful light shows appear to be polarized, with their electromagnetic waves lined up in a common orientation. (New Scientist)

Nature's Carbon Balance Confirmed
April 28 — Scientists found new evidence that Earth's natural feedback mechanism regulated carbon dioxide levels for hundreds of thousands of years, but they say humans are now emitting CO2 so fast that the planet's natural balancing mechanism cannot keep up. (BBC News)

Potent Greenhouse-Gas Methane has Been Rising
April 28 — After nearly a decade of holding relatively steady, levels of methane in the atmosphere appear to be rising, and scientists are trying to find out why. (Christian Science Monitor)

North Pole Could Be Ice Free in 2008
April 27 — For the first time, the vast expanse of snow at the North Pole could become a vast expanse of water, due to a number of factors this year that led to most of the Arctic ice being thin and vulnerable as it enters its summer melting season. (ABC News)

Narwhals More at Risk from Arctic Warming than Polar Bears
April 25 — The polar bear has become an icon of global warming vulnerability, but a new study found an Arctic mammal that may be even more at risk from climate change: the narwhal. (ABC News)

Arctic Getting "Wetter" Due to Human-Driven Warming
April 25 — In addition to heating up faster than almost anywhere else on the planet, the Arctic has gotten wetter and snowier because of global warming, according to a new study. (National Geographic News)

In British Columbia, a Beetle Upsets Climate Calculus
April 24 — An infestation of beetles is turning more than 144,000 square miles of woods in British Columbia from a carbon absorber to a net CO2 emitter. Between 2000 and 2020, the forest will lose 270 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere, scientists say. (Christian Science Monitor)

Jet Stream Shifts May Spur More Powerful Hurricanes
April 24 — Earth's jet streams – high-altitude winds that influence storm direction – may be changing due to global warming, possibly making it easier for hurricanes to form, a new study says. (National Geographic News)

Arctic Currents May be Warming the World
April 24 — Natural changes in the warm ocean currents travelling to the icy north may be helping to heat up the entire northern hemisphere, new research suggests. (New Scientist)

Shaky U.S. Grounds Revealed in New Maps
April 23 — U.S. earthquake hazard maps show newfound seismic worries, including the discovery of more earthquake faults in California, a new 7.4-magnitude-quake risk in Utah, and more faults that could rock the Midwest, South Carolina and the Pacific Northwest. (Discovery News)

Giant Undersea Volcano Found Off Iceland
April 22 — A giant and unusual underwater volcano lies just offshore of Iceland on the Reykjanes Ridge, volcanologists have announced. (National Geographic News)

First Contact with Earthquake Zone
April 21 — Scientists have completed the first stage of an ambitious plan to drill down into an earthquake-generating region near Japan, and have bored holes 1.4 kilometers (0.87 miles) into the sea floor, producing 3-D images of stresses inside the quake zone. (BBC News)

Ocean Waves Pounding Harder
April 21 — Archived seismological data now show that wave energy from ocean surf has been getting stronger for decades, matching what's predicted to happen as the world's oceans and air heat up. (Discovery News)

Mysterious Striped Currents Revealed in the Oceans
April 21 — Superimposed on every ocean on the planet there is a striped pattern of currents – yet scientists say that what causes them is a mystery. (New Scientist)

Hothouse Earth Would Halt Plate Tectonics
April 20 — Computer models show that a huge rise in atmospheric temperatures could jam the planet's tectonics, causing continents to grind to a halt, mountains to stop growing and earthquakes to cease. (New Scientist)

More Doubt on Cosmic Climate Link
April 18 — The idea that modern global warming is due to changes in cloudiness caused by solar influences on cosmic rays is popular with "climate skeptics," but scientists found changes in cosmic ray flux do not affect cloud formation – the second such report in a month. (BBC News)

Singing Icebergs Get Record Deal
April 18 — By combining satellite images with the signal from an iceberg's subsonic "song," the researchers found the apparent source: a king-sized iceberg called C16. (Discovery News)

Record Heat for Land Surfaces in March
April 18 — March 2008 was the warmest March on record over land surfaces of the world and the second warmest overall worldwide. The United States saw average surface temperatures for that month. (Associated Press)

Acidic Oceans May be Water of Life for Plankton
April 18 — Most life in the ocean will suffer as carbon dioxide levels increase and the water becomes more acidic, but plankton will buck the trend, thriving and putting on weight as carbon dioxide levels rise – but it remains to be seen how this will affect the global carbon balance. (New Scientist)

Ocean Salinity Evidence of Climate Change
April 17 — Research shows there has been a drop in ocean salinity, suggesting ice around Antarctica is melting more rapidly. The diluted saltwater could alter ocean currents and further impact climate. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Major California Earthquake Likely to Hit Within 30 Years
April 15 — A new model devised to determine the probability of major earthquakes has found that the chances of a 6.7 magnitude earthquake not hitting California by 2038 was 1 percent, the U.S. Geological Survey said. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Forecast for Big Sea Level Rise
April 15 — Sea levels could rise by up to 1.5 meters [5 feet] by the end of this century, according to a new scientific analysis that used a computer model to link temperatures to sea levels for the last two millennia. (BBC News)

Melting Mountains a Time Bomb for Water Shortages
April 14 — Glaciers and mountain snow are melting earlier in the year than usual, resulting in a lack of water when millions of people need it during the summer when rainfall is lower, scientists warned. (Reuters)

Undersea Quake Swarm Puzzles Experts
April 13 — Scientists listening to underwater microphones have detected an unusual swarm of earthquakes off central Oregon, something that often happens before a volcanic eruption – except there are no volcanoes in the area. (Associated Press)

Scientists Discover 8,000-Year-Old Trees
April 11 — Scientists have found a cluster of spruces in the mountains in western Sweden which, at an age of 8,000 years, may be the world's oldest living trees. (Reuters)

Curious Cloud Formations Linked to Quakes
April 11 — Scientists are asking if unusual clouds signal the possibility of an impending earthquake, after the discovery of distinctive cloud formations above an active fault in Iran before each of two large earthquakes occurred. (New Scientist)

Melting Causes Lake in Chile to Empty
April 10 — Melting ice in southern Chile caused a glacial lake to swell and then empty suddenly, sending a "tsunami" rolling through a river, a scientist said. (ABC News)

Lack of Clouds Amplified Dinosaur-Era Warming
April 10 — About 100 million years ago, during the age of dinosaurs, a warming spell caused cloud cover to drastically decrease, helping drive temperatures even higher, according to a new study. (National Geographic News)

Packed Hurricane Season Ahead
April 9 — A noted hurricane researcher predicted that rising water temperatures in the Atlantic will bring a "well above average" storm season this year, including four major storms. (Associated Press)

Solomons Quake First Seen to Jump Tectonic Barrier
April 9 — A deadly earthquake and tsunami that swept the Solomon Islands last year gained part of its power by breaking through what should have been a major geologic barrier, scientists say. (National Geographic News)

Underwater Ears Warn of Hurricane Strength
April 8 — Hurricanes make themselves heard – even under water. Scientists hope to use that sound to gauge how destructive a storm will be when it hits land. (New Scientist)

Sea Breezes Carry Unhealthy Whiff of Ozone
April 7 — Seaside air may not be so healthy after all, according to a new device that measures the chemical that leads to the formation of ozone. In some locations, levels of the chemical were 20 times higher than expected from numerical models. (ABC News)

Climate Change Risk for Endangered Animals
April 7 — A major study of ancient DNA has produced a grim outlook for endangered animals as a result of climate change. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Earth's Crust Shows Long-Term Wiggle Room
April 7 — A new, long-term look at the Earth's crust suggests that the continental plates are not completely rigid after all. When viewed on very long time scales, they can behave with surprising fluidity, report scientists. (Discovery News)

Program Monitoring Australian Coral Reefs
April 4 — A special monitoring program has been launched on Australia's Gold Coast, and the data will be used to assess over-fishing, pollution and sediment levels for the region's lesser-known reefs. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Global Temperatures To Decrease
April 4 — Global temperatures for 2008 will be slightly cooler than last year as a result of the cold La Niña current in the Pacific, U.N. meteorologists said. (BBC News)

No Sun Link to Climate Change
April 3 — Scientists have produced further compelling evidence that modern-day climate change is not caused by changes in the sun's activity and its influence on cosmic ray intensity. (BBC News)

Dust Plays Huge Role in Climate Change
April 3 — Scientists know that dust affects climate, but as scientists look deeper into the dust-climate connection, they find that they have underestimated its importance. (Christian Science Monitor)

Melting Ice Caps May Trigger More Volcanic Eruptions
April 3 — Scientists say that a warmer world could be a more explosive one, as ice disappears and relieves the pressure exerted on the rocks deep under Iceland's largest ice sheet and increases the rate at which rocks melt into magma. (New Scientist)

Lightning's Forms Traced to Electrical 'Layer Cake'
April 2 — By combining lightning observations and computer modeling, the shapes and directions of lightning can be traced to a layer cake of charges inside thunderheads that govern the ways the super-hot bolts escape from thunderclouds. (Discovery News)

Electrified Deep Earth Changing Length of Day
April 2 — Tiny changes to the length of days on Earth may be due to a mineral in the deep Earth that conducts electricity at high rates, a new study says. (National Geographic News)

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