High Fire Danger
October 30, 2009Bushfires have been part of the Australian landscape for millions of years, but if fires become more frequent and intense our ecosystem could be pushed to tipping point, scientists say. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) more...
Sea Art Created by Natural Bloom
October 28, 2009A new NASA image, taken Oct. 25 from the Aqua satellite, shows large blooms of plantlike organisms called phytoplankton off the east coast of New Zealand. (Live Science) more...
Volcanic Eruptions Caused Ancient Warming and Cooling
October 27, 2009Volcanic eruptions were responsible for a deadly ice age 450 million years ago, as well as -- in an ironic twist -- a period of global warming that preceded it, a new study finds. (Live Science) more...
Palms Once Grew in Ice-Free Arctic
October 26, 2009Palms flourished in the Arctic during a brief sweltering period about 50 million years ago, according to a study that hints at gaps in our understanding of modern climate change. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation/Reuters) more...
Climate Map Shows Human Impacts
October 26, 2009A map designed to show the predicted effects of a 4C rise in global average temperature has been unveiled by the UK government. (BBC News) more...
How to Keep Track of Climate Change
October 26, 2009Complex data, distilled and delivered in real time, could shed light on a global issue. (The Christian Science Monitor) more...
Pool of Magma May Feed 3 Washington Volcanoes
October 26, 2009A new study suggests there's a vast pool of magma beneath southwestern Washington state that supplies Mount St. Helens, Mount Rainier and Mount Adams. (Live Science) more...
Melting Arctic Could Unleash Vast CO2 Stores
October 21, 2009Arctic land and seas may soak up as much as a quarter of the carbon absorbed globally each year, says a comprehensive review of the Arctic carbon cycle. (Discovery News) more...
Tsunami Threat Looms Over Pacific Northwest
October 20, 2009The Pacific Northwest needs to brace itself for a massive tsunami that will likely destroy homes, hurl cars against buildings, and threaten the lives of tens of thousands of people, experts say. (Discovery News) more...
Cosmic Pattern to UK Tree Growth
October 19, 2009The growth of British trees appears to follow a cosmic pattern, with trees growing faster when high levels of cosmic radiation arrive from space. (BBC News) more...
Slide Show: Fall’s Colors Explained
October 19, 2009The secrets of why leaves of trees change yellow or red in the autumn are slowly being revealed. (Discovery News) more...
Underground Creatures Shrank Under Climate Change
October 19, 2009During the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) some 55 million years ago, temperature and carbon dioxide levels soared -- and mammals shrank in body size by as much as 50 percent, according to a new study. (Discovery News) more...
Leaves “Magnetized” by Air Pollution, Study Finds
October 19, 2009Tree leaves are "magnetized" by air pollution and the phenomenon may offer a new and inexpensive technique for quickly identifying air-pollution hot spots, scientists say. (National Geographic News) more...
1800s-Era Sea Logs Chart Course of Climate Change
October 18, 2009To map the future of weather, climatologists are cracking open logbooks kept by sailors during the early, harrowing naval voyages of the likes of Capt. Cook and Charles Darwin. (National Public Radio) more...
Hurricane History Recorded in Earth’s Noise
October 16, 2009According to new research in the North Atlantic Ocean, hurricanes make a small but detectable mark on the rhythm of the Earth's background noise. (Discovery News) more...
Stormier Arctic Predicted as Ice Melts
October 15, 2009With summer ice apparently disappearing in the Arctic, the region faces a stormy future, according to a recent atmospheric study—more rain, more snow, more whitecaps. (National Geographic News) more...
Birth of Appalachians Triggered Mass Extinction
October 15, 2009The birth of the U.S. Appalachian mountain chain may have been behind a major ice age and a mass extinction. (New Scientist) more...
Arctic to be Ice-Free in Summer
October 14, 2009The Arctic Ocean could be largely ice-free and open to shipping during the summer in as little as ten years' time, a top polar specialist said. (BBC News) more...
Glacier Melt in India Endangers Local Population
October 13, 2009India’s Kashmir glaciers are melting fast because of rising temperatures, threatening the water supply of millions of people in the Himalayan region, a new study by Indian scientists says. (Discovery News) more...
Bygone Pollutants Resurface as Glaciers Melt
October 13, 2009Pollutants trapped in glaciers in decades past are re-entering the environment as the ice melts some 30 years later. (Discovery News) more...
Surprising Ship ‘Contrails’ Seen From Space
October 12, 2009A NASA satellite has captured an image of ship "tracks" – clouds that form around ship exhaust. (Live Science) more...
‘Scary’ Climate Message From Past
October 10, 2009A new historical record of carbon dioxide levels suggests current political targets on climate may be "playing with fire", scientists say. (BBC News) more...
Glacier Technology Feels the Heat
October 9, 2009Tools used to monitor glaciers could play a vital role in predicting landslides, scientists said. (BBC News) more...
When Quakes Swarm: Are Quakes Contagious?
October 9, 2009A recent cluster of seven big quakes has some wondering if quakes trigger more quakes. (Discovery News) more...
Dead Zones Doubling Every Decade
October 8, 2009Earth's oceans currently have more than 400 dead zones, oxygen-starved areas that are hundreds or thousands of square miles and virtually devoid of life during summer months. (Live Science) more...
Dust Storm Triggers Ocean Bloom
October 7, 2009The red dust storm that dumped thousands of tons of soil across eastern Australia two weeks ago has caused an explosion in microscopic life in Sydney Harbor and beyond. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) more...
Australian Dust Storms Feed Life Explosion
October 7, 2009The red dust storm that dumped thousands of tons of soil across eastern Australia two weeks ago has caused an explosion in microscopic life in Sydney Harbor and beyond. (Discovery News) more...
Volcanoes Defrosted Ice Age
October 6, 2009As ice sheets thawed toward the end of the last ice age, Earth responded with a fit of volcanic eruptions that spewed CO2 into the air and created the balmy climate we know today, according to a new study. (Discovery News) more...
Volcanoes Wiped Out All Forests 250 Million Years Ago
October 6, 2009Massive volcanic eruptions wiped out the world's forests about 250 million years ago, leaving the planet teeming with wood-eating fungi, according to a new study. (National Geographic News) more...
Loss of Top Predators Causing Ecosystems to Collapse
October 1, 2009The catastrophic decline around the world of "apex" predators is causing major economic and ecological disruptions. (Live Science) more...
6-Foot Sea-Level Rise Called Inevitable
October 1, 2009Even if the world warmed just 1.5 degrees C, seas will rise 2 meters (6 feet), a scientist said Tuesday at a climate conference at Oxford University. (Live Science) more...
Cosmic Rays Reveal Erupting Volcano's Guts
October 1, 2009Cosmic radiation has been used to peer inside an erupting volcano, a technique that could allow eruptions to be predicted. (New Scientist) more...