An international team of researchers including the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel has produced the first global estimate of mercury emissions from hydrothermal sources at mid-ocean ridges based on measurements. The researchers were able to show that most of the mercury in the ocean comes from human activities – and can therefore be reduced. Their findings have been published in the journal Nature Geoscience. Ten years ago, the United Nations agreed to minimise mercury pollution in the environment…
The Arctic is remote, with often harsh conditions, and its climate is changing rapidly — warming four times faster than the rest of the Earth. This makes studying the Arctic climate both challenging and vital for understanding global climate change. Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories are using an existing fiber optic cable off Oliktok Point on the North Slope of Alaska to study the conditions of the Arctic seafloor up to 20 miles from shore. Christian Stanciu, project lead, will…
New research has shown that methane trapped under the ocean is vulnerable to climate change and could be released into the ocean. An international team of researchers involving experts from GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel found that methane, a potent greenhouse gas, released as methane hydrates break down, moves from the deepest parts of the continental slope to the edge of the underwater shelf, and even further inland beyond where methane hydrates are typically found. This means that…
New data analyses allow better evaluation of climate models. Scientists use climate models to simulate past climate, in order to determine how and why it has changed. As a result of man-made climate change it is not possible to apply models directly to the future, because the boundary conditions have changed. “We thus have to simulate the past in order to test the models. Simulations of climate from the Last Glacial Maximum, the LGM, are therefore important in the evaluation…
Researchers led by Göttingen University determine factors for chemical development in crater lakes on Earth. In southern Germany just north of the Danube, there lies a large circular depression between the hilly surroundings: the Nördlinger Ries. Almost 15 million years ago, an asteroid struck this spot. Today, the impact crater is one of the most useful analogues for asteroid craters on early Mars. Studying the deposits of the former lake that formed in the crater is particularly informative. These deposits…
Kiel researchers evaluate the future protection potential of dikes and show flooding scenarios for the German Baltic Sea coast until 2100. The record storm surge in October 2023 caused severe damage to the German Baltic coast. Effective adaptation scenarios to rising sea levels are therefore becoming increasingly urgent. In two recent studies, researchers at Kiel University have modelled both the flooding extent along the Baltic Sea coastal areas and, for the first time, two possible upgrades for current dike lines…
Yesterday evening, the research vessel Polarstern set off from Cape Town for a special region: Two expeditions in East Antarctica will focus on the history of the instability of the ice sheet there and its interactions with ocean circulation. On the first leg, which will last around two months and be led by GEOMAR, the main focus will be on oceanographic, geoscientific and biological work; the second leg will be led by Kiel University and will have a geoscientific focus,…
Blame it on plate tectonics. The deep ocean is never preserved, but instead is lost to time as the seafloor is subducted. Geologists are mostly left with shallower rocks from closer to the shoreline to inform their studies of Earth history. “We have only a good record of the deep ocean for the last ~180 million years,” said David Fike, the Glassberg/Greensfelder Distinguished University Professor of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St….
Global measurements and model calculations show that the complex relationship between the chemistry and climate impact of aerosol particles can be successfully captured by a simple formula. The extent to which aerosol particles affect the climate depends on how much water the particles can hold in the atmosphere. The capacity to hold water is referred to as hygroscopicity (K) and, in turn, depends on further factors – particularly the size and chemical composition of the particles, which can be extremely…
The radiative effects of smoke from individual extreme forest fires can apparently lead to global impacts that influence the energy balance of the atmosphere and thus the global climate in a complex way. This is the conclusion drawn by a team from the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) from an analysis of the extreme 2019/20 forest fires in Australia using simulations with a global aerosol climate model. The simulated effects of the smoke led to a temperature increase of…
How did climatic and environmental change impact early eastern Mediterranean cultures, and what were the consequences of human settlement on land and marine ecosystems? In order to collect research data to answer these questions, the German research ship METEOR – under the guidance of Earth scientists from Heidelberg University – is embarking on a multi-week expedition to the Aegean and Ionian seas. The international research team will collect sediment cores from the sea floor along the coast of Greece, which…
KU research boat on its first mission… On land, in the air – and now also by water: Geographers of Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (KU) are broadening the scope of their research. Their equipment now includes a research boat with a high-precision depth sounder. It allows researchers to survey the bottom of lakes, rivers, and the sea. This technology has now been used for the first time in a research project in Kaunertal, Austria, where KU scientists have been studying…
International team of researchers reveals for the first time a mechanism to explain pronounced climate variability during the last ice age. Although humankind is responsible for the current global climate warming, our planet has constantly been undergoing natural climate fluctuations throughout the past. Possible forcing mechanisms for this variability would have been changes in the brightness of the sun or explosive volcanic eruptions, but also interactions within the atmosphere/ocean/sea-ice system. Experts refer here to external and internal factors influencing the…
Researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz are investigating the jet stream to assess how its decadal variations could affect the occurrence of weather extremes in Europe. Heavy precipitation, wind storms, heat waves – when severe weather events such as these occur they are frequently attributed to a wavy jet stream. The jet stream is a powerful air current in the upper troposphere that balances the pressure gradient and Coriolis forces. It is still uncertain whether the jet stream is really…
Examining how plates move in Earth’s mantle and how mountains form is no easy feat. Certain rocks that have sunk deep into Earth’s interior and then returned from there can deliver answers. Led by the Department of Geosciences at Goethe University Frankfurt, an international team of geologists has now succeeded in analyzing whiteschist from the Alps so precisely by means of computer modeling that it calls a previous theory about plate movement into question. Geoscientists analyze rocks in mountain belts…
What are the global impacts of an ice-free Arctic? How will the Arctic develop with increasing climate warming? What does an ice-free Arctic mean for our environment and our society? Researchers want to answer these questions with the “i2B – Into the Blue” project, looking back to the past and forward to the future. This project has now been funded with 12.5 million euros by a Synergy Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for six years. The project’s proposers…
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