Popular Science articles about Earth & Climate

Autopsy of a eruption: Linking crystal growth to volcano seismicity

A forensic approach that links changes deep below a volcano to signals at the surface is described by scientists from the University of Bristol in a paper published May 24 in Science. The research could ultimately help to predict future...

LiDAR technology reveals faults near Lake Tahoe

Results of a new U.S. Geological Survey study conclude that faults west of Lake Tahoe, Calif., referred to as the Tahoe-Sierra frontal fault zone, pose a substantial increase in the...

Beetle-infested pine trees contribute more to air pollution and haze in forests

The hordes of bark beetles that have bored their way through more than 6 billion trees in the western U.S. and British Columbia since the 1990s do more than damage...

Seagrasses can store as much carbon as forests

Seagrasses are a vital part of the solution to climate change and, per unit area, seagrass meadows can store up to twice as much carbon as the world's temperate and...

Toxic mercury, accumulating in the Arctic, springs from a hidden source

Environmental scientists at Harvard have discovered that the Arctic accumulation of mercury, a toxic element, is caused by both atmospheric forces and the flow of circumpolar rivers that carry the...

New study by WHOI scientists provides baseline measurements of carbon in Arctic Ocean

Scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have conducted a new study to measure levels of carbon at various depths in the Arctic Ocean. The study, recently published in...

Pollution teams with thunderclouds to warm atmosphere

Pollution is warming the atmosphere through summer thunderstorm clouds, according to a computational study published May 10 in Geophysical Research Letters. How much the warming effect of these clouds offsets...

Sumatra faces yet another risk -- major volcanic eruptions

The early April earthquake of magnitude 8.6 that shook Sumatra was a grim reminder of the devastating earthquakes and tsunami that killed tens of thousands of people in 2004 and...

Chocolate and diamonds: Why volcanoes could be a girl's best friend

Scientists from the University of Southampton have discovered a previously unrecognised volcanic process, similar to one that is used in chocolate manufacturing, which gives important new insights into the dynamics...

USF study: Common fungicide wreaks havoc on freshwater ecosystems

Chlorothalonil, one of the world's most common fungicides used pervasively on food crops and golf courses, was lethal to a wide variety of freshwater organisms in a new study, University...

Statistical analysis projects future temperatures in North America

For the first time, researchers have been able to combine different climate models using spatial statistics -- to project future seasonal temperature changes in regions across North America.

El Niño weather and climate change threaten survival of baby leatherback sea turtles

When leatherback turtle hatchlings dig out of their nests buried in the sandy Playa Grande beach in northwest Costa Rica, they enter a world filled with dangers. This critically endangered species faces threats that include egg poaching and human fishing...