All Articles Tagged As: climate

Future snowmelt in West twice as early as expected; threatens ecosystems and water reserves (7/23/2008)

Global warming could lead to larger changes in snowmelt in the western United States than was previously thought, possibly increasing wildfire risk and creating new water management challenges for agriculture, ecosystems and urban populations. ...> Full Article

Scientific drilling starts in Qaidam Basin (7/20/2008)

Joint drilling project is planned to reach a 1,200m-deep core in the alkaline region at the local sedimentation center of the west Qaidam sub-basin. Then combining with natural outcrops nearby the deep core, it is expected to reconstruct the high resolution and precision chronologic sequence and to confirm the occurrences of seismostratigraphic boundaries. ...> Full Article

Researcher talks about latest in Younger Dryas work in Science article (7/19/2008)

latest research into the question of whether the significant climate change event about 12,900 years ago known as Younger Dryas impacted the climate all around the globe ...> Full Article

Researchers To Fly Unmanned Planes Over Greenland Ice Sheet To Monitor Melting (7/17/2008)

Researchers are hoping for a unique glimpse into the workings of the massive Greenland ice sheet are undertaking the first unmanned aerial survey of the island's fast-flowing outlet glacier region. ...> Full Article

Research team draws 150-meter ice core from McCall Glacier (7/12/2008)

A 150-meter ice core pulled from the McCall Glacier in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge this summer may offer researchers their first quantitative look at up to two centuries of climate change in the region. ...> Full Article

How intense will storms get? New model helps answer question (7/9/2008)

A new mathematical model indicates that dust devils, water spouts, tornadoes, hurricanes and cyclones are all born of the same mechanism and will intensify as climate change warms the Earth's surface. ...> Full Article

Landslide buries climate change link (7/1/2008)

New findings could pour cold water on evidence that climate change is happening simultaneously around the world. ...> Full Article

Study hopes to crack the code on how ice flows (6/30/2008)

How ice breaks up may be important factor in climate change prediction models ...> Full Article

Rapid Climate Change: past; present; future (6/27/2008)

Key findings from an ambitious research project that provided the first 'early detection system' for climate changes in the Atlantic Ocean ...> Full Article

Ice cores map dynamics of sudden climate changes (6/22/2008)

New, extremely detailed data from investigations of ice cores from Greenland show that the climate shifted very suddenly and changed fundamentally during quite few years when the ice age ended. ...> Full Article

Scientists Detail the Effects of Climate Change on Extreme Weather in North America (6/22/2008)

Droughts, heavy downpours, excessive heat, and intense hurricanes are likely to become more commonplace ...> Full Article

Ocean temperatures and sea level increases 50 percent higher than earlier predictions (6/19/2008)

New research suggests that ocean temperature and associated sea level increases between 1961 and 2003 were 50 percent larger than estimated in the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. ...> Full Article

Even the Antarctic winter cannot protect Wilkins Ice Shelf (6/16/2008)

Wilkins Ice Shelf has experienced further break-up with an area of about 160 km² breaking off from 30 May to 31 May 2008. ESA’s Envisat satellite captured the event â€" the first ever-documented episode to occur in winter. ...> Full Article

Fossils found in Tibet by geologist revise history of elevation, climate (6/14/2008)

Geologist surprised to find thick layers of ancient lake sediment filled with plant, fish and animal fossils typical of far lower elevations and warmer, wetter climates. ...> Full Article

Permafrost Threatened by Rapid Retreat of Arctic Sea Ice (6/13/2008)

The rate of climate warming over northern Alaska, Canada, and Russia could more than triple during periods of rapid sea ice loss ...> Full Article

Geoengineering could slow down the global water cycle (5/28/2008)

As fossil fuel emissions continue to climb, reducing the amount of sunlight hitting the Earth would definitely have a cooling effect on surface temperatures. ...> Full Article

Sunshade World - a global warming solution? (5/27/2008)

Placing a 'sunshade' in space in order to counteract global warming was first proposed in 1989 ...> Full Article

Studies confirm greenhouse mechanisms even further into past (5/17/2008)

The newest analysis of trace gases trapped in Antarctic ice cores now provide a reasonable view of greenhouse gas concentrations as much as 800,000 years into the past, and are further confirming the link between greenhouse gas levels and global warming ...> Full Article

Ice cores reveal fluctuations in the Earth's greenhouse gases (5/16/2008)

Ice cores from Antarctica show both the lowest atmospheric content of CO2 (carbon dioxide) and fast changes in the content of CH4 (methane) measured over the past 800,000 years. ...> Full Article

Hot climate could shut down plate tectonics (5/13/2008)

With locked crust, Earth could become another Venus ...> Full Article

As Climate Warms, Underwater Deserts Grow in Tropical Oceans (5/11/2008)

Oxygen-poor waters are expanding in tropical regions of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans ...> Full Article

Climate Models Overheat Computer analyses of global climate have consistently overstated warming in Antarctica, concludes new research (5/10/2008)

Computer analyses of global climate have consistently overstated warming in Antarctica, concludes new research by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and Ohio State University. ...> Full Article

Global Climate Models Both Agree and Disagree With Actual Antarctic Data (5/8/2008)

Scientists who compared recorded Antarctic temperatures and snowfall accumulation to predictions by major computer models of global climate change offer both good and bad news. ...> Full Article

Researchers Predict 59 Percent Chance Of Record Low Arctic Sea Ice In 2008 (5/5/2008)

Calculations indicate the record low minimum extent of sea ice across the Arctic last September has a three-in-five chance of being shattered again in 2008 because of continued warming temperatures and a preponderance of younger, thinner ice. ...> Full Article

Scientists Head to Warming Alaska on Ice Core Expedition (5/2/2008)

Scientists on the second leg of a multi-year mission to recover ice cores from glaciers in the Alaska wilderness ...> Full Article

Mapping Earth's soil moisture (5/1/2008)

Science team designing a NASA satellite mission to collect global soil moisture measurements and other data seen as key to improving weather, flood and drought forecasts and predictions of agricultural productivity and climate change. ...> Full Article

Scientists Discover New Ocean Current (5/1/2008)

Scientists have discovered a new climate pattern called the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation ...> Full Article

Formation of ice sheets 34 million years ago changed ocean acidity (4/29/2008)

Before ice first began to form in Antarctica around 34 million years ago, the Earth was a very different place - but then greenhouse conditions swiftly gave way to an icehouse climate, causing the oceans to become less acidic. ...> Full Article

'New' Ancient Antarctic Sediment Reveals Climate Change History (4/29/2008)

Recent additions to the premier collection of Southern Ocean sediment cores at will give scientists a close-up look at fluctuations that occurred in Antarctica's ice sheet and marine and terrestrial life as the climate cooled considerably between 20 and 14 million years ago. ...> Full Article

1600 Eruption Caused Global Disruption (4/25/2008)

The 1600 eruption of Huaynaputina in Peru had a global impact on human society ...> Full Article

Mountains reached current elevation earlier than thought (4/24/2008)

Sierra Nevada rose to current height earlier than thought, geologists say ...> Full Article

Methane sources over the last 30,000 years (4/18/2008)

New insights into natural changes in atmospheric methane concentrations ...> Full Article

Why Is Arctic Sea Ice Melting Faster Than Predicted? NOAA Probing Arctic Pollution (4/12/2008)

Scientists are now flying through springtime Arctic pollution to find out why the region is warming - and summertime sea ice is melting - faster than predicted ...> Full Article

American West Heating Nearly Twice As Fast As Rest Of World, New Analysis Shows (4/1/2008)

The American West is heating up more rapidly than the rest of the world, according to a new analysis of the most recent federal government temperature figures. The news is especially bad for some of the nation's fastest growing cities, which receive water from the drought-stricken Colorado River. The average temperature rise in the Southwest's largest river basin was more than double the average global increase, likely spelling even more parched conditions. ...> Full Article

Antarctic Ice Shelf Disintegrating As Result Of Climate Change, Scientists Say (3/27/2008)

Satellite imagery from the University of Colorado at Boulder's National Snow and Ice Data Center shows a portion of Antarctica's massive Wilkins Ice Shelf has begun to collapse because of rapid climate change in a fast-warming region of the continent. ...> Full Article

How Iron Gets into the North Pacific (3/21/2008)

Is the Dust-Storm Theory Overblown? ...> Full Article

10 questions shaping 21st-century earth science identified (3/14/2008)

Ten questions driving the geological and planetary sciences were identified today in a new report by the National Research Council. Aimed at reflecting the major scientific issues facing earth science at the start of the 21st century, the questions represent where the field stands, how it arrived at this point, and where it may be headed. ...> Full Article

Warming climate may cause arctic tundra to burn (3/8/2008)

Research from ancient sediment cores indicates that a warming climate could make the world's arctic tundra far more susceptible to fires than previously thought. The findings, published this week in the online journal, PLoS ONE, are important given the potential for tundra fires to release organic carbon - which could add significantly to the amount of greenhouse gases already blamed for global warming. ...> Full Article

New Seafloor Cores Show Tight Bond Between Dust And Past Climates (3/5/2008)

Researchers hope to shed light on proposed manmade climate 'repairs' ...> Full Article

Large Source of Nitrate, a Nutrient and Potential Water Contaminant, Found in Near-Surface Desert Soils (3/3/2008)

Disruption of desert soil surface could result in wind erosion of nitrate-rich soil ...> Full Article

Rock studies help crack questions of glacier thinning in West Antarctica (3/2/2008)

Boulders the size of footballs could help scientists predict the West Antarctic Ice Sheet's (WAIS) contribution to sea-level rise according to new research published this week in the journal Geology. ...> Full Article

Drained lake holds record of ancient Alaska (2/29/2008)

Not too long ago, a lake sprung a leak in the high country of the Wrangell-St. Elias Mountains. The lake drained away, as glacier-dammed lakes often do, but this lake was a bit different, and seems to be telling a story about a warmer Alaska. ...> Full Article

Studying Rivers for Clues to Carbon Cycle (2/28/2008)

In the science world, in the media, and recently, in our daily lives, the debate continues over how carbon in the atmosphere is affecting global climate change. Studying just how carbon cycles throughout the Earth is an enormous challenge, but one Northwestern University professor is doing his part by studying one important segment -- rivers. ...> Full Article

Solar evidence indicates global warming may not be human caused (2/20/2008)

It's getting harder and harder to blame mankind for causing the gradual increase in global temperatures that are now being seen in the climate record, scientists said today. ...> Full Article

New Greenland Ice Sheet Data Will Impact Climate Change Models (2/14/2008)

With digital imaging techniques, scientists find new data in old aerial photographs ...> Full Article

As A River Runs Through It, A Death Valley Stream Offers Insights Into Flooding And Climate Change (2/11/2008)

Death Valley may be known by its three superlatives: hottest, driest, and lowest - as in temperature, rainfall, and elevation in the United States. But it was the flow of water through the National Park that attracted Boston College Asst. Prof. of Geology and Geophysics Noah P. Snyder to the desert of eastern California. ...> Full Article

Antarctic ice shelf collapse explained (2/8/2008)

When the Larsen B Ice Shelf in Antarctica collapsed in 2002, the event appeared to be a sudden response to climate change, and this long, fringing ice shelf in the north west part of the Weddell Sea was assumed to be the latest in a long line of victims of Antarctic summer heat waves linked to Global Warming. ...> Full Article

Natural Ocean 'Thermostat' May Protect Some Coral Reefs (2/8/2008)

Natural processes may prevent oceans from warming beyond a certain point, helping protect some coral reefs from the impacts of climate change, new research finds. The study, by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), finds evidence that an ocean "thermostat" appears to be helping to regulate sea-surface temperatures in a biologically diverse region of the western Pacific. ...> Full Article

Tipping elements in the Earth's climate system (2/6/2008)

A team of climate experts has compiled a shortlist of nine areas in the world that are in danger of passing critical thresholds or 'tipping points' due to climate change ...> Full Article

Researchers Say Climate Change Could Produce Water Crisis in Western U.S. (2/4/2008)

Researchers in a new Science article published online warn that human-caused climate change has dramatically altered the water flow over the past 50 years in several Western states. ...> Full Article

Baffin Island Ice Caps Shrink By 50 Percent Since 1950s (2/3/2008)

A new University of Colorado at Boulder study has shown that ice caps on the northern plateau of Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic have shrunk by more than 50 percent in the last half century as a result of warming, and are expected to disappear by the middle of the century. ...> Full Article

New ice core shows more evidence of Antarctic Peninsula change (2/1/2008)

More evidence of changing weather patterns around the Antarctic Peninsula - a region where climate has changed rapidly over the last 50 years - is published this month in Geophysical Research Letters (online). ...> Full Article

New radar satellite technique sheds light on ocean current dynamics (1/26/2008)

Ocean surface currents have long been the focus of research due to the role they play in weather, climate and transportation of pollutants, yet essential aspects of these currents remain unknown. ...> Full Article

New Antarctic Ice Core to Provide Clearest Climate Record Yet (1/23/2008)

After enduring months on the coldest, driest and windiest continent on Earth, researchers today closed out the inaugural season on an unprecedented, multi-year effort to retrieve the most detailed record of greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere over the last 100,000 years. ...> Full Article

2007 Was Earth's Second Warmest Year in a Century (1/21/2008)

Climatologists at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) at Columbia University have found that 2007 tied with 1998 for Earth's second warmest year in a century. ...> Full Article

Alaska Glacier Speed-up Tied To Internal Plumbing Issues, Says Study (1/19/2008)

A University of Colorado at Boulder study indicates meltwater periodically overwhelms the interior drainpipes of Alaska's Kennicott Glacier and causes it to lurch forward, similar to processes that may help explain the acceleration of glaciers observed recently on the Greenland ice sheet that are contributing to global sea rise. ...> Full Article

NASA Observes La Nina: This 'Little Girl' Makes A Big Impression (1/18/2008)

Cool, wet conditions in the Northwest, frigid weather on the Plains, and record dry conditions in the Southeast, all signs that La Niña is in full swing. ...> Full Article

Record warm summers cause extreme ice melt in Greenland (1/17/2008)

An international team of scientists, led by Dr Edward Hanna at the University of Sheffield, has demonstrated that recent warm summers have caused the most extreme Greenland ice melting in 50 years. The new research provides further evidence of a key impact of global warming and helps scientists place recent satellite observations of Greenland's shrinking ice mass in a longer-term climatic context. ...> Full Article

Evidence of glaciation in 'super greenhouse' world (1/12/2008)

Large ice-sheets existed on Earth about 91 million years ago, during one of the warmest periods since life began, an international team of scientists, including members from Newcastle University, has found. ...> Full Article

A Warming Climate Can Support Glacial Ice (1/11/2008)

New research indicates glacial ice existed on earth during intense period of global warming ...> Full Article

'Climate Crisis' in the West Predicted with Increasing Certainty (1/10/2008)

Computer model analyses trace hydrological trends to human causes with unprecedented robustness ...> Full Article

Electric sand findings could lead to better climate models (1/8/2008)

Wind isn't acting alone in the geological process behind erosion, sand dunes and airborne dust particles called aerosols. The other culprit is electricity. By taking both factors into account, researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a new model that matches real-world measurements of "saltation" better than the decades-old classical theory. ...> Full Article

North Atlantic Warming Tied to Natural Variability (1/7/2008)

But global warming may be at play elsewhere in the world's oceans, scientists surmise ...> Full Article

Study suggests future sea-level rises may be even higher than predicted (12/25/2007)

A new study of past sea levels shows that they rose by an average of 1.6 metres every one hundred years the last time the Earth was as warm as it is predicted to be later this century, with levels reaching up to six metres above those seen today. The findings suggest that current predictions of sea-level rises may be too low. ...> Full Article

Evolution Tied to Earth Movement (12/21/2007)

Geologists Say 'Wall of Africa' Allowed Humanity to Emerge ...> Full Article

Toll of Climate Change on World Food Supply Could Be Worse Than Thought (12/8/2007)

Predictions, Already Daunting, Fail to Account for Extreme Weather, Disease and Other Complications, Say New Reports ...> Full Article

New satellite study shows dramatic melting of Greenland ice during summer of 2007 (12/1/2007)

Newly published research that includes satellite data from three separate sources shows that the seasonal melt on Greenland's ice sheet during the summer of 2007 was a stunning 60 percent more than the previous high, set in 1998. ...> Full Article

Climate Change Could Diminish Drinking Water More Than Expected (11/7/2007)

As sea levels rise, coastal communities could lose up to 50 percent more of their fresh water supplies than previously thought, according to a new study. ...> Full Article

Western Canada's Glaciers Hit 7000-Year Low (11/2/2007)

Tree stumps at the feet of Western Canadian glaciers are providing new insights into the accelerated rates at which the rivers of ice have been shrinking due to human-aided global warming. ...> Full Article

Like it or not, uncertainty and climate change go hand in hand (10/30/2007)

Despite decades of ever more-exacting science projecting Earth's warming climate, there remains large uncertainty about just how much warming will actually occur. ...> Full Article

Methane Bubbling From Arctic Lakes, Now And At End Of Last Ice Age (10/27/2007)

A team of scientists have identified a new likely source of a spike in atmospheric methane coming out of the North during the end of the last ice age. ...> Full Article

New Way To Measure Ancient Ocean Temperatures Refined (10/25/2007)

Spanish researcher further refined the recently developed TEX86 paleothermometer. The thermometer measures seawater temperature dependent changes in the cell wall composition of archeabacteria. ...> Full Article

Ancient Fossil Evidence Supports Carbon Dioxide As Driver Of Global Warming (10/18/2007)

A team scientists has devised a new way to study Earth's past climate by analyzing the chemical composition of ancient marine fossils. The first published tests with the method further support the view that atmospheric CO2 has contributed to dramatic climate variations in the past, and strengthen projections that human CO2 emissions could cause global warming. ...> Full Article

Climate research gives clues to human expansion out of tropical Africa (10/10/2007)

New research has shed light on an important, but previously little-understood period in Africa's climate history that has implications for understanding human evolution and the expansion of Homo sapiens out of tropical Africa. ...> Full Article

Carbon Dioxide Did Not End The Last Ice Age, Study Says (10/9/2007)

Carbon dioxide did not cause the end of the last ice age, a new study in Science suggests, contrary to past inferences from ice core records. ...> Full Article

Cave Records Provide Clues To Climate Change (10/8/2007)

When Georgia Tech Assistant Professor Kim Cobb and graduate student Jud Partin wanted to understand the mechanisms that drove the abrupt climate change events that occurred thousands of years ago, they didn't drill for ice cores from the glaciers of Greenland or the icy plains of Antarctica, as is customary for paleoclimatolgists. Instead, they went underground. ...> Full Article

Life-giving Rocks From A Depth Of 250 Km (10/1/2007)

If our planet did not have the ability to store oxygen in the deep reaches of its mantle there would probably be no life on its surface. This is the conclusion reached by scientists at the University of Bonn who have subjected the mineral majorite to close laboratory examination. Majorite normally occurs only at a depth of several hundred kilometres under very high pressures and temperatures. ...> Full Article

Clues to End of the Last Ice Age (9/29/2007)

Researcher shows that deep-sea temperatures rose 1,300 years before the buildup of atmospheric carbon dioxide, ruling out CO2 as driver of the last ice age's meltdown. ...> Full Article

Oxygen on Earth: 50 to 100 Million Years Earlier Than Scientists Thought (9/28/2007)

Scientists have found that traces of oxygen appeared in Earth's atmosphere 50 to 100 million years earlier than previously thought--before what geologists call the "Great Oxidation Event." ...> Full Article

Arctic heat wave stuns climate change researchers (9/27/2007)

Unprecedented warm temperatures in the High Arctic this past summer were so extreme that climate change researchers have begun revising their forecasts. ...> Full Article

Scientists to forecast and respond to human health effects of climate change (9/25/2007)

Climate changes have jeopardized human health in the past, and are bound to do so again. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s, for example, led to many illnesses and deaths from breathing difficulties and malnutrition, and prompted westward migrations of people vying for scarce food, shelter, and work. ...> Full Article

Arctic Sea Ice Bottoms Out For 2007, Shatters All Time Record Low (9/24/2007)

Scientists say that the extent of Arctic sea ice appears to have reached its minimum for 2007 on Sept. 16, shattering all previous lows since satellite record-keeping began nearly 30 years ago. ...> Full Article

Scientist tracks greenland meltwater (9/22/2007)

World oceans would rise 23 feet and flood many coastal areas if climate change melted the entire Greenland ice cap. And satellite images from 1980 onward reveal the surface of this vast ice sheet is warming, getting soggy and staying wet for longer periods every year. ...> Full Article

Rising Surface Temperatures Drive Back Winter Ice in Barents Sea (9/21/2007)

Researchers find not so between Siberia and Alaska, where winter sea ice holds its own. ...> Full Article

Studying Evidence From Ice Age Lakes (9/12/2007)

During the last Ice Age, the ice dammed enormous lakes in Russia. The drainage system was reversed several times and the rivers flowed southwards. A group of geologists is now investigating what took place when the ice melted and the lakes released huge volumes of fresh water into the Arctic Ocean. ...> Full Article

Strong Evidence Points to Earth's Proximity to Sun as Ice Age Trigger (8/27/2007)

A question unresolved for more than a century may have an answer ...> Full Article

Glaciologist Looks To Ice For Clues About Global Warming (7/23/2007)

Once or twice a year Keith Mountain, chair of the Department of Geography and Geosciences at the University of Louisville, and colleagues from the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University spend months hunting for a disappearing treasure: ice. ...> Full Article