Exaggerated 3D model of the Peruvian Andes with an overlay of the greening strip, the green area represents an increase in the Enhanced Vegetation Index with darker areas corresponding to a larger relative greening. Credit: Hugo Lepage, Cavendish Laboratory Research led by physicists and geographers at the University of Cambridge has unveiled some large-scale changes…
Category: Earth
Researchers construct model to predict frequency of heat wave and air pollution co-occurrence in China
Spatial distribution and temporal variation of HWOP frequency. (A) Spatial distribution of mean HWOP frequency in summer (days/year) over 2005 to 2021 in Central and Eastern China. (B) Interannual variation of original (blue line) and detrended (red line) HWOP frequencies (# per month) in Central and Eastern China. (C) Intermonthly variation of original (blue bars)…
Gloomy climate calculation: Scientists predict a collapse of the Atlantic ocean current to happen mid-century
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Important ocean currents that redistribute heat, cold and precipitation between the tropics and the northernmost parts of the Atlantic region will shut down around the year 2060 if current greenhouse gas emissions persist. This is the conclusion based on new calculations from the University of Copenhagen that contradict the latest report…
New proof that Earth's plate tectonics recently underwent a fundamental change
Sampling of a primordial mantle reservoir by mantle plume as evidenced by Ti and Sr isotopic records of the modern OIBs from the Iceland, Samoa and Caroline hotspots. Data of the OIB samples from Cape Verde and Azores in ref. 3 are shown as white circles. The N-MORB and E-MORB samples from refs. 3,4 are shown, for…
Seismological study provides insight into composition and thermal state of Earth's lower mantle
Spatial distribution of mineral composition, iron content, and temperature at varying depths. Credit: University of Science and Technology of China A research team led by Professor Wu Zhongqing from the School of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Science and Technology of China of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has made a significant…
Cyprus' beaches could disappear by 2100 due to climate change
Cyprus beach on northern coastline highlighting beach retreat over an 11-year period using historical satellite imagery. Credit: Monioudi et al, Frontiers in Marine Science (2023). DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2023.1188896 Cyprus’ beaches are at risk due to climate change as increased sea levels and wave action erode the sandy shores. This has prompted a dire warning from researchers…
Global warming will cause more multiyear La Niña events, study finds
Projected increase in frequency of multiyear La Niña events under future greenhouse-gas forcing. Credit: IOCAS Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is the Earth’s most consequential interannual climate fluctuation. Alternating irregularly between warm El Niño and cold La Niña phases, it brings shifts in ocean surface temperature and disrupts wind and rainfall patterns across the tropics. Unlike El…
Greenland melted some 416,000 years ago, shows high risk of causing sea level rise today
A large portion of Greenland melted about 416,000 years ago—perhaps a bit like the modern Greenland landscape shown in this photo—and became ice-free tundra, or boreal forest, a new study in the journal Science shows. The results help overturn a previous view that much of the Greenland ice sheet persisted for most of the last…
Exploring the multi-billion-dollar risk to economic activity from climate extremes affecting ports
Maritime trade at-risk. a, Cross-border downtime risk for import flows of countries. b, Same as a but for exports. c, Top 30 countries in terms of maritime trade at-risk (in value terms), including a breakdown between domestic and cross-border downtime risk. Basemaps in a,b from GADM (gadm.org). The country codes refer to country ISO-alpha3 code….
Long-term changes in waves and storm surges have not impacted global coastlines, new study finds
Global distribution of trend in the magnitude of storm surge, Δη95 (95th percentile of water level) (cm/year) over the period of 1984–2014 at DIVA locations. Note values in the Arctic can be smaller than the lower limits of the color bar (up to −0.3cm/year) [Map generated using Matlab Mapping toolbox]. Credit: Scientific Reports (2023). DOI:…