Rare Fossilized Cypress Trees Found in Hungary
July 31 — Hungarian scientists said on Tuesday they have discovered a group of fossilized swamp cypress trees preserved from 8 million years ago which could provide clues about the climate of pre-historic times. (Reuters)

Hurricane Boost 'Due to Warm Sea'
July 30 — The number of hurricanes has doubled over the last century, fueled by warmer sea surface temperatures and changes in wind patterns caused by climate change, according to a new analysis. (BBC News)

Gulf Coast "Dead Zone" Still Large
July 30 — The oxygen-poor "dead zone" off the Louisiana and Texas coasts is not quite as big as predicted this year, but it is still the third-largest ever mapped, a scientist said. (CBSNews.com)

Supercomputer Makes Near-Instant Movies of California Quakes
July 30 — A digital chain reaction is now in place, on purpose, so that scientists at Caltech and the San Diego Supercomputer Center can use data from a network of ground sensors and supercomputers to turn an earthquake into a near real-time animated movie that the public can watch on home computers or on TV as soon as the news breaks. (Live Science)

Iodine Enters the Climate-Change Mix
July 28 — Each year seafaring bacteria produce about 500,000 tones of iodine, which enters the atmosphere in molecules called iodocarbons - a form of aerosols that shade the planet but also form ozone, a greenhouse gas. (NewScientist.com)

Earth's Crust is Just Like Pizza Dough
July 28 — A seismic survey shows how the Gulf of California was formed as the tectonic rift underneath it stretched and broke. (New Scientist)

�Space Arrow� to Map Earth�s Tug
July 27 — Goce, a satellite due for launch next year, can measure tiny variations in the Earth's gravity field and will be one of Europe's most challenging space missions to date. (BBC News)

Underground 'Snowy River' Alive Again
July 27 — Previous study of calcite that encrusted the two-mile-long "Snowy River" in Fort Stanton Cave just after its 2001 discovery had indicated that 150 years had passed since it had flowing water, but the cave has astonished researchers by coming alive with water, according to volunteer cavers who have dug a new, safer entry passage into the New Mexican treasure. (Discovery News)

Possible Mud Volcano Erupts Near Trinidad
July 26 — Mud spewing out of the sea five miles off the eastern coast of Trinidad could be a mud volcano that could form a new, temporary island, a seismologist said on Thursday. (Reuters)

UK Forecasts to Zoom in on Towns
July 26 — Accurate forecasts are currently limited to county-sized areas, but with the aid of a supercomputer, weather forecasters will soon be able to zoom in on regions that are the size of a town, UK meteorologists have said. (BBC News)

Stronger Hurricanes Mean Whopper Waves
July 26 — Three decades of data about ocean waves, collected from buoys off the U.S. Atlantic Coast, shows waves are getting steadily larger in response to stronger hurricanes, and the discovery offers a new way to spot trends in hurricane intensities � a subject of intense controversy. (Discovery News)

Ozone has �Strong Climate Effect�
July 25 — Ozone could be a much more important driver of climate change than scientists had previously predicted, according to a study in the journal Nature. (BBC News)

Nevada has Big Temperature Gains
July 25 — Nevada is among the states with the most dramatic increase in average temperatures the last 30 years, according to a new study that examines the impact of global warming across the country. (Associated Press)

Erosion May Send Alaska Oil Wells into the Ocean
July 25 — Old Alaskan oil wells could be swallowed by the ocean as rising temperatures speed up erosion of the state's Arctic coastline. (Reuters)

Major Quake, Tsunami Likely in Middle East, Study Finds
July 25 — A new-found underwater fault near Lebanon spurred a tsunami that devastated Phoenicians 1,500 years ago � and it will happen again, experts say. (National Geographic News)

Measuring The Retreat History Of Alpine Glaciers
July 25 — The lengths of alpine glaciers quickly adjust to changes in temperature and precipitation, making them sensitive indicators of climate, but for glaciers that existed in the past, documenting the changes in length often requires rare geological and glaciological circumstances. (Science Daily)

Tibet is Warming at Twice Global Average
July 24 — The Tibetan plateau is heating up by more than twice the worldwide average, according to a new study that underscores a growing understanding that high elevations in tropical regions are experiencing dramatic temperature increases similar to those seen at the poles. (NewScientist.com)

The Rain in Spain Stays Mainly in the Plain. Or Does It?
July 24 — Climate change explains shifting rainfall patterns, and wet places are getting wetter and dry places drier, according to models of climate change that can predict and explain shifting rainfall patterns globally. (ScientificAmerican.com)

Extreme Weather Monitoring Boosted by Space Sensor
July 23 — The first soil moisture maps with a spatial resolution of one kilometer (0.6 miles) are available online for the entire southern African subcontinent, and could lead to better weather and extreme-event forecasting, such as floods and droughts. (Science Daily)

Study Changes Geological Map of Canada
July 23 — Geologists found that portions of Canada collided a minimum of 500 million years earlier than previously thought, and the discovery is offering new insight into how the different continental fragments of North America assembled billions of years ago. (Science Daily)

Cornfields May Affect Weather Patterns
July 23 — Climatologists are building evidence that crops, particularly corn, are driving up dew points as they put water into the atmosphere through evaporation, and they also may make corn-growing areas cooler and alter rain patterns. (Associated Press)

Humans �Affect Global Rainfall�
July 23 — Human-induced climate change has affected global rainfall patterns over the 20th Century, a study suggests. (BBC News)

Earthquake "Swarm" Strikes Africa
July 23 — A series of "mini-quakes" in east Africa last week has shaken up residents and left scientists wondering if a nearby volcano or a shifting tectonic plate is to blame. (National Geographic News)

New La Nina Could Stir up Hurricanes
July 20 — The U.N.'s weather agency on Friday said a disruptive La Nina climate pattern was taking shape in the Pacific, raising the prospect of an active Atlantic hurricane season and strong monsoons in Asia. (Agence France-Presse)

Glaciers and Ice Caps to Dominate Sea Level Rise
July 20 — Ice loss from glaciers and ice caps is expected to cause more global sea rise during this century than the massive Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, with glaciers and ice caps currently contributing about 60 percent of the world's ice to the oceans compared to 28 percent from Greenland and 12 percent from Antarctica. (Science Daily)

Mysteries of Antarctic Mountains Revealed
July 20 — In a new explanation for the formation of the 3,000-kilometer-long (1,900-mile-long) Transantarctic Mountains - a dominant feature of the Antarctic continent - researchers say that the mountains appear to be the remnant edge of a gigantic high plateau that began stretching and thinning some 105 million years ago, leaving the peaks curving along the edge of a great plain. (Science Daily)

Megaflood Separated U.K., France
July 18 — One of Earth's largest-ever megafloods, which unleashed about 35 million cubic feet of water per second about 400,000 years ago during a glacial period, broke apart a strip of land connecting what is now Britain and France, permanently separating them, according to new, three-dimensional, high-quality imagery of the region. (Associated Press)

Iowa Farmers Look to Trap Carbon in Soil
July 16 — Farmers have released huge amounts of carbon dioxide, the major greenhouse gas, just by plowing their fields � and they have recently found ways to recapture some of that carbon. (National Public Radio)

Warming May Bring Hurricanes to Mediterranean
July 16 — Global warming could trigger hurricanes, or tropical cyclones, over the Mediterranean sea, threatening one of the world's most densely populated coastal regions, according to European scientists. (Reuters)

China Says Climate Change Drying Up Major Rivers
July 16 — Chinese scientists have warned that rising temperatures are draining wetlands at the head of the country's two longest rivers, choking their flow and imperiling water supplies to hundreds of millions of people. (Reuters)

Reservoirs Found to Trigger Quakes
July 16 — Manmade lakes can trigger nearby earthquake faults, according to a comparison of water levels in the Govind Ballav Pant reservoir with nearby tremors that revealed more quakes when the water was at the highest stand, with about a month lag time, say a team of Indian and Nepalese geologists. (Discovery News)

Drought Threatens Navajo's Crops, Culture
July 15 — A drought in the southwestern United States is having serious effects on the Navajo Nation, putting not only their crops at risk, but their culture as well. (National Public Radio)

Safer Shipping by Predicting Sand Wave Behavior
July 15 — Researchers developed a mathematical model to predict the movement of sand waves � formed by an interaction between the tidal current and sand � that could become a valuable tool for shipping and designers of offshore infrastructures. (Science Daily)

Deep Volcanic Fizz Forces Earth to Burp
July 13 — Gases from Earth�s interior can ascend to the surface and cause magma to explode in dangerous splatters, and originate from deeper inside the planet than previously thought. (Live Science)

Soft Corals "Melting" Due to Warming Seas
July 13 — Soft coral communities in tropical waters may literally be melting away because of bleaching events, which have been dramatically accelerated by global warming, a leading expert says. (National Geographic News)

Fragmented Structure of Seafloor Faults May Dampen Earthquakes
July 13 — Geophysicists have found new evidence that the fragmented structure of seafloor faults, along with previously unrecognized volcanic activity, may be dampening the effects of underwater earthquakes. (Science Daily)

Scientists Get Front Row Seats to Rapid Mudflow
July 13 — A mudflow that recently burst through the banks of a volcanic lake in New Zealand gave scientists an up-close and personal view of the freak event and a chance to test their disaster warning systems. (Live Science)

Changing Climate Will Challenge Northeast Agriculture
July 13 — Farmers will be the first to feel the heat from global warming as they grapple with new and aggressive crop pests, summer heat stress and other sobering challenges that could strain family farms to the limit, warns an expert on the effects of climate change on agriculture. (Science Daily)

China's Tianshan Glaciers Shrinking Fast
July 12 — Glaciers in the Tianshan mountains of Xinjiang, near China's western border, are shrinking at "alarming speeds,� experiencing a loss of 20 million cubic meters of ice in the past four decades, the Xinhua news agency said. (Reuters)

How Plants Learned To Respond To Changing Environments
July 12 — Researchers have discovered how plants adapt their growth, including key steps in their life cycle such as germination and flowering, to take advantage of environmental conditions, and how plants repress growth when their environment is not favorable. (Science Daily)

Experts Plan Rating System for El Ni�o
July 12 — Weather experts are planning a rating scale to help people understand the power of El Ni�o, similar to the popular way researchers measure hurricanes and tornadoes. (Associated Press)

Coral Shuffle Helps Reefs Survive Warmer World
July 12 — Australia's Great Barrier Reef might be able to survive warming sea temperatures, as a result of global warming, better than first thought because some coral algae are more heat tolerant. (Reuters)

Northeast Faces Flood Risks from Global Warming
July 11 — New York's Wall Street, Boston's historic areas and Atlantic City's casinos may all suffer frequent devastating flooding by the end of the century unless the world sharply cuts greenhouse emissions, according to a new report. (Reuters)

'No Sun Link' to Climate Change
July 10 — A new study confirms that for the last 20 years the Sun's output has declined, yet temperatures on Earth have risen, which implies that the Sun's output cannot be causing modern-day climate change. (BBC)

Java Landslide Launched 2006 Tsunami
July 10 — A stealthy tsunami that defied nature's own alert system and killed more than 600 last July may have been caused by an undersea landslide, itself triggered by a large earthquake. (Discovery News)

Texas Goes Green after Record Rainfall
July 10 — A deluge of torrential rains has lashed the Lone Star State for more than a month, spurring grassy plains to bloom dense vegetation. (National Geographic News)

Thousands of New Volcanoes Revealed Beneath the Waves
July 9 — The true extent to which the ocean bed is dotted with volcanoes has been revealed by researchers who have counted 201,055 underwater cones � over 10 times more than have been found before. (New Scientist)

Cows That Burp Less Seen Helping in Climate Fight
July 9 — Using modern plant-breeding methods to find new diets for cows that make them belch less is a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, scientists say. (Reuters)

Ancient Culture Prompts Worry for Arid Southwest
July 9 — With the Southwest in the midst of a drought that started in 1999, and if forecasts of global warming are correct, the region could end up in a drought that's even longer and more severe than the one that forced the Anasazi to abandon Chaco Canyon. (National Public Radio)

Barra Could Head South as Climate Change Hits
July 8 — North Australian barramundi may be forced to migrate as far south as New South Wales as climate change impacts sea temperatures. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Heat Wave Fuels Western Wildfires
July 8 — As a heat wave made parched terrain even drier, wildfires dotted the West on July 7, forcing authorities to evacuate homes and close highways and wilderness areas. (Associated Press)

Honey, We Shrunk the Earth
July 6 — Increasingly accurate measurements, more data and improved geophysical models led researchers to conclude that Earth is five millimeters smaller than previously thought. (New Scientist)

Strong Earthquake Strikes Mexico
July 6 — A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 struck southern Mexico, causing a widespread power cut and panic among residents. (BBC News)

So You Think It's Hot? Southwest to Sizzle for 90 Years
July 6 — Although it's hard to judge long-term trends from individual seasons, a new study confirms that long-term drought is already under way in the American Southwest � one that may last the rest of this century, if not longer. (ABC News)

New Ice Core Reveals 800,000 Years of Climate History
July 6 — Earth's polar temperature has swung wildly � by as much as 15 degrees Celsius (27 degrees Fahrenheit) � over the last 800,000 years, an Antarctic ice core has revealed. (National Geographic News)

Ancient Humans in Asia Survived Super-Eruption
July 6 — Stone tools were found in India both above and below a layer of ash left behind by a volcanic "super-eruption" 74,000 years ago, hinting that humans in the region survived the blast's devastating effects. (National Geographic News)

DNA Test Indicates Very Green Greenland
July 5 — Ice-covered Greenland really was green a half-million or so years ago, covered with forests in a climate much like that of Sweden and eastern Canada today, according to researchers who recovered ancient DNA from the bottom of an ice core that indicates the presence of pine, yew and alder trees as well as insects. (Associated Press)

Drought Saps the Southeast, and Its Farmers
July 4 — The worst drought in over a century has farmers in the Southeast averting their gaze from a future that looks as bleak as their fields. (New York Times)

Thanks a Lot! Bugs Help Invasive Weeds Win
July 4 — In addition to being physically overpowered by invasive weeds, native plants continue to be devoured by the local bugs that are used to them, while nonnative weeds often are not as appealing to local insects. (LiveScience.com)

West African Climate Change Bests Nomads
July 3 — A dramatic change in the climate of west Africa over the past 40 years has forced many nomads to settle down in villages, and people who once lived entirely off the land now depend on foreign aid and charity for their existence. (NPR)

Monster Icebergs Left Deep Scratch Marks on Seabed
July 3 — Sonar images of the ocean floor off western Greenland reveal scratch marks that date to the last ice age, and mark the passing of the largest icebergs ever known to have existed. (New Scientist)

Niger's Trees May Be Insurance Against Drought
July 2 — For decades, necessity has forced the people of Niger to chop down their valued trees, but recent local and international efforts to plant and protect trees have succeeded. This new tree growth may allow Nigeriens to better cope with the effects of climate change. (NPR)

Study Says Erosion Slicing Arctic Alaska Habitat
July 2 — A swath of marshy, wildlife-rich coastal land in Arctic Alaska being eyed for oil drilling is eroding rapidly probably because of the disappearance of sea ice that used to protect it from the ocean waves, according to a new study. (Reuters)

Study: Hurricanes May Aid Stressed Coral
July 2 — Coral reefs stressed by warming conditions may benefit from hurricanes, which can mix the warm surface water and colder deep water enough to lower the temperature as much as 9 degrees Fahrenheit. (Associated Press)

Satellite Images Reveal Link Between Urban Growth and Rainfall Patterns
July 2 — For the first time, scientists have used satellite images to demonstrate a link between rapid city growth and rainfall patterns, as well as to assess compliance with an international treaty to protect wetlands. (Stanford News Service)

Global Warming Drying Up Ancient Arctic Ponds
July 2 — Arctic ponds that have hosted diverse ecosystems for thousands of years are now disappearing because of global warming, according to a new study. (National Geographic News)

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