Uncertainties Surround Future Monsoons
July 31, 2009Almost halfway through the rainy season, the monsoon in many parts of South Asia continues to remain unreliable, leading to the question of whether climate change is to blame. (BBC News) more...
Sahara Desert Greening Due to Climate Change?
July 31, 2009Vast swaths of North Africa are growing lusher, new satellite images show, suggesting a possible boon for people living in the driest part of the continent. (National Geographic News) more...
Drilling Deep into an Ocean Fault
July 31, 2009For the first time, researchers have been able to drill deep (more than 1,600 meters) into an ocean fault zone. (Scientific American) more...
Jellyfish Help to Stir the Ocean
July 30, 2009Jellyfish help to stir up the ocean as they move, according to researchers who used a green dye to show how the animals' umbrella-shaped bodies were a key factor in this mixing. (BBC News) more...
Ancient Rocky Structures Built by Microbes
July 30, 2009Scientists have found evidence that microbial communities built 3.45-billion-year-old stromatolites, which are layered, rock-like structures of sediment that grow in shallow water. (Live Science) more...
Alaska's Biggest Tundra Fire Sparks Climate Warning
July 30, 2009A charred region of the Arctic is pumping large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, finds an ecological assessment. (New Scientist) more...
Bolivia's Indians Feel the Heat
July 29, 2009Hydrologists from La Paz are planning to measure the glacial loss of Illimani -- a mountain in Bolivia that supplies a nearby community with some of their water supply. (BBC News) more...
Woodlands 'Losing Biodiversity'
July 28, 2009British woodlands are less biologically distinctive than they were 70 years ago, says a team of UK researchers. (BBC News) more...
Incan Empire Aided by Global Warming
July 28, 2009A 400-year warm spell helped the ancient Inca to build the largest empire ever to exist in the Americas, a new study has established. (Discovery News) more...
New Study Backs UN Panel on Ocean Rise
July 27, 2009A new study has concluded that the UN climate panel's prediction for sea level rise this century is correct, concluding that oceans are unlikely to rise by an order of meters by 2100, but low-lying countries and delta areas could still face potentially catastrophic flooding if the upper range of the new estimate proves right. (Agence France-Presse/Australian Broadcasting Corporation) more...
Light Brings Lakes to Life
July 27, 2009Add nutrients and a lake's ecosystem flourishes -- or so the thinking goes -- but new work suggests that light, rather than food, is the key to lake productivity. (New Scientist) more...
Ancient Lava Flow Photographed from Space
July 27, 2009A NASA satellite has captured an image of a massive ancient lava flow in New Mexico . (Live Science) more...
Getting a Grip on Greenland's Future
July 24, 2009There are few places in the world where the effects of global warming appear to be more dramatic than the Ilulissat ice fjord. (BBC News) more...
Wall Could Stop Desert Spread
July 24, 2009A plan to build a 6,000 kilometer-long wall across the Sahara Desert to stop the spread of the desert has been outlined. (BBC News) more...
Clouds in Climate's Vicious Cycle
July 24, 2009Clouds over the North-East Pacific dissipate as the ocean warms, according to a study, and researchers have described this as a "vicious cycle" of warming, as reduced cloud cover allows more of the Sun's rays to heat the Earth. (BBC News) more...
Ancient Ocean Temperatures Could Predict Climate Change
July 23, 2009An Australian scientist has released new research on ancient deep ocean temperatures which could be used to predict climate change. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) more...
Mystery Blob Leaves Scientists Puzzled
July 22, 2009A huge mat of oily goo caught everyone by surprise when it showed up off the shore of Wainwright, Alaska nearly two weeks ago, and preliminary testing showed that the goo was made of algae, even though it looked like an oil spill. (Discovery News) more...
Formula Found to Explain Earth's Evenly Spaced Valleys
July 22, 2009A new study describes the geological tug-of-war that causes even spacing between valleys and ridges. (Live Science) more...
Comet Impacts Triggered Ice Age Extinctions?
July 21, 2009Rare diamonds found buried on an island near southern California strengthen the controversial idea that comet impacts wiped out huge beasts and an early human culture in North America about 12,900 years ago. (National Geographic News) more...
The Migration of Trees …with Some Help
July 20, 2009On naked patches of land in western Canada and the United States, scientists are planting trees that don't belong there as a bold experiment to move trees threatened by global warming into places where they may thrive amid a changing climate. (CBS News) more...
Mapping America's Giant Trees
July 20, 2009Scientists in California have set up a unique experiment to track the life histories of some of the world's oldest and tallest trees. (BBC News) more...
Why Raindrops Come in Many Sizes
July 20, 2009By filming one falling raindrop, researchers have explained why the drops are an array of so many different sizes, describing how the drop deformed and burst as it fell. (BBC News) more...
Warmer Winter for Southern Scientists
July 17, 2009Scientists at Antarctica's Casey station have recorded the warmest July on record, and a meteorologist says that once-in-a-decade wind patterns are the likely cause. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) more...
Ocean Tsunamis Visible from Space
July 16, 2009A study by the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration says large tsunamis crossing the ocean stir up and darken the surface water along the wave's leading edge, with the rougher water forming a shadow which can then be measured by satellites. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) more...
Are the Deserts Getting Greener?
July 16, 2009It has been assumed that global warming would cause an expansion of the world's deserts, but now some scientists are predicting a contrary scenario in which water and life slowly reclaim these arid places. (BBC News) more...
Australia's Tsunami System Performs Well
July 16, 2009A tsunami warning for south-eastern Australia may have come to nothing, but it did demonstrate the worth of the monitoring system, says one expert. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) more...
Sun's Activity Cycle Linked to Earth Climate
July 16, 2009When the sun's weather is most active, it can impact Earth’s climate in a way that is similar to El Niño and La Niña events, a new study suggests. (Live Science) more...
Toxins May Have Doomed Ancient Forests
July 14, 2009The same noxious compounds released from burning coal and crude oil may have devastated forests and the early dinosaurs that lived in them 200 million years ago. (Discovery News) more...
Arctic Glacier to Lose Manhattan-Sized 'Tongue'
July 14, 2009The biggest glacier in the Arctic is on the verge of losing a chunk of ice the size of Manhattan, and a group of scientists and climate change activists who are closely monitoring the Petermann Glacier's ice tongue believe the rapid flow of ice is in part due to warm ocean currents moving up along the coast of Greenland, fueled by global warming. (New Scientist) more...
Tiny Particles with a Huge Environmental Impact
July 10, 2009Human activity in deserts is causing more dust to settle on alpine meadows and mountains, speeding snow melt. (The Christian Science Monitor) more...
Volcano Might Create Its Own Clouds
July 10, 2009Clouds often collect over peaks, but clouds in an image taken by NASA's Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite could result from water vapor released by the volcano, NASA scientists explained. (Live Science) more...
Shrinking Sea: Over Half of the Aral Sea Has Vanished in Three Years
July 10, 2009Two images, taken in 2006 and 2009 by the European Space Agency's Envisat satellite, show the rapid loss of water in central Asia's Aral Sea, which is shared by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. (Scientific American) more...
Mysterious Tremors Detected on San Andreas Fault
July 9, 2009Scientists have detected a spike in underground rumblings on a section of California's San Andreas Fault that produced a magnitude-7.8 earthquake in 1857. (ABC News) more...
Shifting Rain Band Threatens Pacific Islands
July 9, 2009A prominent band of rain that circles the equator has moved hundreds of miles north over the last few centuries, probably because of a changing climate. (Discovery News) more...
Amazon River Dated to 11 Million Years Old
July 8, 2009The Amazon River and its current lengthy and transcontinental bed is about 11 million years old, according to a new study—a fascinating development considering the river's exact age was previously unknown, researchers say. (Live Science) more...
Was Ancient Earth a Green Planet?
July 8, 2009A new analysis of limestone rocks that formed between 1 billion and 500 million years ago suggests that there was extensive plant life on land much earlier than previously thought. (New Scientist) more...
Shrinking Glaciers Watched from Afar
July 7, 2009Satellite imagery is providing a clearer picture of the impact of climate change on a sub-Antarctic Heard Island, where over the past few decades, glaciers have retreated and there have been extensive changes to vegetation on the World Heritage-listed island. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) more...
Watch: Sea Exploration Hits New Frontier
July 7, 2009Canadian researchers prepare to launch the largest underwater observatory ever. (ABC News) more...
Experts Warn on Expanding Tropics
July 6, 2009In a review of over 70 scientific papers, climate researchers have documented the rapid advance of the tropical zone and found that it is expanding rapidly -- between 2 and 5 degrees of latitude in both hemispheres over the last 25 to 30 years. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) more...
Nut Growers Look to Space for Support, Guidance
July 6, 2009NASA satellite images could soon give information to nut growers about their orchard's health, allowing them to stay ahead of plant stress issues, pests and diseases that could affect crop yield and quality. (Associated Press/MSNBC) more...
Solved: Why Blind Faults Make Big Quakes
July 2, 2009Blind faults, buried several miles deep in Earth's crust, reside in rock layers perfectly suited to violent rupture, according to a new study. (Discovery News) more...
How Earth Got Its Oxygen
July 2, 2009The rise of oxygen on early Earth may have been caused by a microbial changing of the guard between methane-producers and oxygen-producers. (Live Science) more...
Angkor's Temples and Climate Change Doom
July 1, 2009The ancient civilization based at Angkor in Cambodia collapsed in the late 16th century because of extreme climate change and the failure of Angkor's complicated water systems, research by an international team indicates. (Radio Australia/Australian Broadcasting Corporation) more...
Trees Buffered Earth from Iceball Fate
July 1, 2009Vegetation helped save Earth from runaway cooling that would have encased the planet in ice, according to a study that shows how vegetation helped buffer the planet from the complete loss of carbon dioxide. (Agence France-Presse/Discovery News) more...
Permafrost Melting a Growing Concern
July 1, 2009The amount of carbon locked away in frozen soils in the far Northern Hemisphere is double previous estimates and rapid melting could accelerate global warming, warns a new study. (Reuters/Australian Broadcasting Corporation) more...
Tropical Rainfall Moving North
July 1, 2009Earth's most prominent rain band, near the equator, has been moving north at an average rate of almost a mile (1.4 km) a year for three centuries, likely because of a warming world, scientists say. (Live Science) more...
Sea Ice Lowest in 800 Years
July 1, 2009Sea ice is shrinking to a level not seen in 800 years, according to researchers who modeled sea ice levels between Greenland and Svalbard, an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean north of Europe, from the 13th century to present using data from a natural climate "archive" and from historic human records. (Live Science) more...
Volcano's Eruptions Create Colorful Sunsets
July 1, 2009Many people in the United States and Europe are seeing gorgeous lavender sunsets lately thanks to the eruption more than two weeks ago of Russia's Sarychev Peak volcano, which sprayed light-scattering ash and fine particles high into the atmosphere. (Live Science/MSNBC) more...
Ocean Researchers Developing Robotic Laser Network to Map the Seabed
July 1, 2009Researchers think it's possible to overcome the problems of undersea laser imaging by deploying swarms of automated robots to do the job. (Scientific American) more...