Loss of Seagrasses is Accelerating
June 30, 2009Nearly 30 percent of global seagrass beds have been lost since records began, and the rate of loss is accelerating, according to a new study. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) more...
Satellite Creates Best Topographic Map of the Earth
June 30, 2009An instrument aboard the Terra satellite has generated the most complete digital topographic map of the Earth ever made, covering 99 percent of the planet. (New Scientist) more...
Marine Science Web Site Logs On
June 29, 2009Marine scientists around the world now have access to the Integrated Marine Observing System, an online resource that will provide near-real time data and collate ocean temperatures, salinity and currents. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) more...
Louisiana Coast Still Vulnerable to Erosion
June 29, 2009Even under best-case outcomes for projects to restore Louisiana's dying coastline, the Mississippi River can't feed enough sediment into marshes to prevent catastrophic land loss, Louisiana State University geologists conclude in a scientific paper. (Associated Press/Discovery News) more...
Rainforests More Fragile than Estimated
June 29, 2009If the planet warms even a moderate amount, a new study predicts that as much as 40 percent of the Amazon rainforest could be condemned to vanish by the end of the century. (Discovery News) more...
Mississippi River Delta to "Drown" by 2100?
June 29, 2009The Mississippi River Delta is drowning, according to new research that predicts the surrounding coastline will be inevitably reshaped in coming decades. (National Geographic News) more...
CO2 Levels Highest in Two Million Years
June 26, 2009To determine just how high temperatures may climb and how climate patterns may shift, researchers may need to pinpoint, for comparison, a time in our planet's past when a similar carbon dioxide jump happened, but doing that may have just gotten a lot tougher -- a new study says atmospheric carbon dioxide levels haven't been this high in more than two million years. (National Geographic News) more...
Urban Trees Capture Carbon Better
June 26, 2009A new study has found street trees are more effective than native forests at capturing carbon because of their relative youth. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) more...
Ozone Hole has Unforeseen Effect on Ocean Carbon Sink
June 26, 2009The Southern Ocean has lost its appetite for carbon dioxide, and now it appears that ozone levels could be partly to blame. (New Scientist) more...
New Theory of Earth's Magnetism Might be 'Nonsense'
June 24, 2009Scientists have long thought the magnetic field, which protects life on Earth from harmful solar and cosmic radiation, is generated by rotation of an iron core that acts like a dynamo, but a controversial new study posits that the flow of seawater causes minor fluctuations in the magnetic field. (Live Science) more...
Dead Sea Peril: Sinkholes Swallow Up the Unwary
June 23, 2009As the fabled Dead Sea shrinks from a dire water shortage, it leaves sinkholes that can open up in an instant, sucking in whatever lies above and leaving the surrounding area looking like an earthquake zone. (ABC News) more...
Himalayan Glacier Studies Commence
June 23, 2009After a long gap, scientists in Nepal have embarked on the first field studies of Himalayan glacial lakes, some of which are feared to be swelling dangerously due to global warming. (BBC News) more...
First Hurricane of Season Forms in Pacific
June 23, 2009The tropical tempest Andres strengthened into the Pacific season's first hurricane, flooding homes, toppling trees and killing at least one person as it swiped Mexico's southwestern coast with wind and rain. (Associated Press/CBS News) more...
Earthquake Trigger Found in Ancient Rock
June 22, 2009Researchers have shed light on how certain types of earthquakes can be triggered deep beneath the earth's crust, and the finding could provide clues as to when the next earthquake along the San Andreas fault will occur. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) more...
Volcanic Blasts Kicked off Modern Ice Ages
June 22, 2009A series of cataclysmic volcanic eruptions gave the planet its polar ice caps, and started a freeze-thaw cycle of ice ages that persists to this day, according to a new theory. (Discovery News/Australian Broadcasting Corporation) more...
Beijing Olympics' Air Pollution: Worse than L.A.
June 22, 2009Particulate pollution levels were about two to four times higher than that of Los Angeles on an average day, according to research. (Live Science) more...
Amazing Volcano Photo Reveals Shock Wave
June 22, 2009An amazing new picture from space reveals a volcanic eruption in its earliest stage, with a huge plume of ash and steam billowing skyward and creating a shock wave in the atmosphere. (Live Science) more...
Anybody Home? Little Response in Pacific Gyre
June 22, 2009In an ocean teeming with life, scientists have discovered a barely inhabited sea floor desert -- the South Pacific Gyre, a massive area of ocean south of the Equator where slow-moving currents ring the region, leaving little organic matter to settle to the sea floor and keeping the water clear. (Associated Press/MSNBC) more...
Planet 'Restlessness' May Predict Big Quakes
June 22, 2009On Dec. 26, 2004, the ocean floor broke off the coast of Sumatra, unleashing a magnitude 9.3 temblor -- the resultant tsunami killed nearly 250,000 people -- but if a new study is right, we could have seen the tremor coming. (Discovery/MSNBC) more...
Mystery Glaciers Growing as Most Others Retreat
June 22, 2009Most of the 50 massive glaciers draped over the spine of the Patagonian Andes are shrinking in response to a global warming, according to a glaciologist, but the Perito Moreno glacier in Argentina and Pio XI glacier in Chile are taking on ice, instead of shedding it. (National Geographic News) more...
Giant Glaciers Can Shrink Rapidly
June 21, 2009Huge glaciers like those in Greenland and Antarctica can shrink or retreat rapidly, including an ancient glacier in the Canadian Arctic that rapidly retreated in just a few hundred years, according to new findings by paleoclimatologists. (Live Science) more...
Earth's Coastlines After Sea-Level Rise, 4000 AD
June 21, 2009Even if we could freeze-frame the atmosphere as it is today, sea levels would still rise by 25 meters [82 feet], says the latest study into the effects of climate change on melting ice sheets. (New Scientist) more...
Using Weather Satellites to Predict Epidemics?
June 20, 2009Scientists at NASA and the Department of Agriculture used some high-flying technology to help stop the 2006 outbreak of Rift Valley Fever. (National Public Radio) more...
Fire Authorities Urged to Act Fast on Controlled Burns
June 19, 2009The window of time to prepare for bushfires using prescribed burning will shrink due to climate change, according to a new Australian study. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) more...
Scientific Reasons for Earth's Seasons
June 19, 2009The seasons officially change once again, with summer beginning in the Northern Hemisphere and winter starting in the south, but what is it that causes the change in seasons? (Discovery/MSNBC) more...
Leafing Las Vegas: Health Dangers of City Plants Revealed
June 19, 2009Tree-lined avenues and flower-filled central reservations are pretty, but they could be damaging your health, according to a new study shows that some plants can increase the rate of ozone production by up to 50 times. (New Scientist) more...
Great Display of Rare Electric-Blue Clouds
June 18, 2009Noctilucent clouds are rare and breathtaking, forming 50 miles above the Earth's surface, in an upper layer of the atmosphere called the mesosphere, and this has been a banner year for them. (Live Science) more...
Falling Raindrops Prompt Rainfall Rethink
June 17, 2009Meteorologists may be overestimating rainfall, according to a new study that shows small raindrops can fall faster than previously thought. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) more...
African Farms Becoming Too Hot to Handle
June 17, 2009African farmers will soon face growing seasons hotter than any in their experience, and to cope with this rapid climate change, they -- and the plant breeders who supply their crops -- will need to make big changes, and soon. (New Scientist) more...
Australian Forests Lock Up Most Carbon
June 16, 2009Mountain ash forests in Australia are the best in the world at locking up carbon, a new study has found. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) more...
White House Sounds Alarm on Climate Change
June 16, 2009Harmful effects from global warming are already here and worsening, warns the first climate report from Barack Obama's presidency in the strongest language on climate change ever to come out of the White House. (Associated Press/CBS News) more...
Is a New Cloud Category on the Horizon?
June 16, 2009An amateur photographer took a photo in June 2006 that intrigued -- and stumped -- a group of dedicated weather watchers who now are pushing weather authorities to create a new cloud category, something that hasn't been done since 1951, but some scientists are skeptical. (Associated Press/CBS News) more...
Silk Road Threatened by Melting Glaciers
June 14, 2009The Chinese gateway to the ancient Silk Road is being flooded – and the culprit, researchers say, is climate change, as melting glaciers sitting above the Hexi corridor in Gansu province, once an important trading and military route into Central Asia, are fuelling dramatic regional floods. (New Scientist) more...
Supervolcano May be Brewing Beneath Mount St. Helens
June 14, 2009Peering under Mount St. Helens has revealed what may be an extraordinarily large zone of semi-molten rock, which would be capable of feeding a giant eruption. (New Scientist) more...
Caribbean Reefs 'Flattened' in Just 40 Years
June 14, 2009In just 40 years, the Caribbean's spectacular branched corals have been flattened, according to research revealing that the corals have been replaced by shorter rival species -- and points to climate change as at least partly to blame. (New Scientist) more...
Wow! Natural Art in the Ocean
June 13, 2009A photo, taken from a NASA satellite, reveals the life embedded in two ocean currents that are converging in the Pacific Ocean. (Live Science) more...
Global Biosphere Images Reveal Changes in Plant Growth
June 12, 2009A new series of NASA images illustrates how Earth's plant growth has changed over the past 11 years. (Live Science) more...
U.S. Winds Are Dying Down, Study Suggests
June 10, 2009Wind across the United States seems to be weakening, a new study suggests, contrary to what computer models predict should happen as the planet warms, and more research is needed to determine what's cooking. (Live Science) more...
Typhoons Can Trigger Earthquakes, Study Suggests
June 10, 2009Typhoons can trigger slow earthquakes -- seismic events during which pressure is released along fault lines over the course of minutes or even days -- and that could be a good thing, according to new research. (National Geographic News) more...
Video Shot into the Eye of a Tornado
June 9, 2009While a video crew was filming a tornado, the twister tilted over on its side and the crew got video looking into the tornado from the top. (Live Science) more...
Jellyfish Threaten to 'Dominate' Oceans
June 8, 2009Giant jellyfish are taking over parts of the world's oceans due to overfishing and other human activities, researchers say. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) more...
El Nino Could Form this Summer
June 8, 2009Equatorial sea surface temperatures are warmer-than-average across much of the Pacific Ocean, right now and El Nino could form this summer, NOAA announced today. (Live Science) more...
Continental Jigsaw Puzzle May Reveal Hidden Treasures
June 8, 2009A new atlas shows Zimbabwe, Russia's Kola Peninsula and Quebec, Canada, as next-door neighbors -- as they were 2.5 billion years ago – in a definitive map of earlier supercontinents made possible by accurately dating huge lava fields that formed before and during the fracturing of supercontinents. (New Scientist) more...
East Coast May Feel Rise in Sea Levels the Most
June 8, 2009Sea levels could rise faster along the U.S. East Coast than in any other densely populated part of the world, new research shows, as changes in ice caps and ocean currents push water toward a shoreline inlaid with cities, resort boardwalks and gem-rare habitats. (The Washington Post) more...
Early Rocks to Reveal Their Ages
June 7, 2009A new technique that allows scientists to recover rare minerals from rocks has been helping scientists piece together how the Earth's continents were arranged 2.5 billion years ago. (BBC News) more...
Scientists Eye Glowing Volcano Crater in Hawaii
June 6, 2009The summit of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano is glowing brightly as molten lava swirls 300 feet below its crater's floor, bubbling near the surface after years of spewing from the volcano's side, but scientists don't know if lava will ever erupt in a fountain from within the crater. (Associated Press/ABC News) more...
Undersea Volcanic Eruptions Spotted in Action
June 5, 2009Volcano experts recently captured undersea volcanic eruptions underway. (Discovery News) more...
Ancient Creatures Survived Arctic Winters
June 5, 2009New research is shedding light on the lives of prehistoric mammals on Canada's Ellesmere Island 53 million years ago, including how they survived the six months of darkness during the Arctic winter. (Live Science/MSNBC) more...
Huge Waves Detected in Atmosphere
June 4, 2009Researchers have detected giant, fast-moving waves of air, caused by thunderstorms and other disturbances, above Poker Flat, Alaska, where a new radar is churning out the first three-dimensional images of upper atmospheric phenomena in the polar region. (Discovery News) more...
Mystery Ingredient Cleaning Earth's Atmosphere
June 4, 2009Mother Nature has a previously unknown cleaning agent that scrubs away toxic air pollution, scientists have discovered, and the existence of the still mysterious substance has shaken up decades-long assumptions about our atmosphere's self-cleaning process. (National Geographic News) more...
Hurricane Forecast Revised as El Nino Potential Grows
June 4, 2009The Atlantic hurricane season just began Monday, and already forecasters are tweaking their predictions -- with an El Niño looking increasingly likely later this summer, Colorado State University meteorologists lowered their hurricane forecast this week. (National Geographic News) more...
Robot Probes Depths of Ocean Abyss
June 3, 2009A robotic submersible called Nereus has reached the deepest-known part of the ocean, reviving the possibility of exploring all of the world's seabed. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) more...
Origin of Antarctic Ice Revealed
June 3, 2009Incredible peaks and valleys, buried beneath ice for 14 million years, have revealed evidence of how the East Antarctic ice sheet first formed. (BBC News) more...
Ancient Antarctic Mountains Found Under Miles of Ice
June 3, 2009In a new study, scientists described a vast terrain that had been hidden beneath Antarctic ice up to two miles thick for eons, until new imaging technology recently uncovered them. (Discovery News) more...
Why is the Ozone Hole in the Less Polluted Southern Hemisphere?
June 3, 2009If the atmosphere in the northern hemisphere is much more polluted than it is in the southern hemisphere, why is there an ozone hole in the south and not in the north? (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) more...
How Antarctica Grew its Ice – And Lost its Hanging Gardens
June 3, 2009The most detailed radar maps ever of the Gamburtsev mountains, which lie under 3 kilometers [1.9 miles] of Antarctic ice, show how lush forests turned into frozen waste . (New Scientist) more...
Public Asked to Help Monitor Life on Earth
June 2, 2009Scientists asked people around the world to help compile an Internet-based observatory of life on earth as a guide to everything from the impact of climate change on wildlife to pests that can damage crops. (Reuters/MSNBC) more...
Public Asked to Help Monitor Life on Earth
June 1, 2009Scientists asked people around the world to help compile an Internet-based observatory of life on Earth as a guide to everything from the impact of climate change on wildlife to pests that can damage crops. (Reuters) more...