Data collection uses a rare, ground-based instrument to pinpoint where and how quickly the landscape is changing. A team from the University of South Florida is on the ground in Hawaii studying Mauna Loa, the largest active volcano in the world, to improve efforts that can help protect residents from lava flow. While slow-moving, lava averages 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit and destroys everything in its path. The team is collecting data that will be used to create models that can help…
Researchers analyze volcanic gases with the help of ultra-lightweight sensor systems. Composition of gases emitted by volcanoes can provide information on the possibility of imminent eruptions / Lightweight drones make investigation possible even in areas that are difficult to access. The main gases released by volcanoes are water vapor, carbon dioxide, and sulfur dioxide. Analyzing these gases is one of the best ways of obtaining information on volcanic systems and the magmatic processes that are underway. The ratio of carbon…
Researchers recommend more vertical measurements for follow-up mission. ESA’s novel Aeolus satellite reliably measures wind speed also in higher air layers and thus in a region of the atmosphere where other direct global wind measurements are relatively sparse. This is the result of a study for which data from the satellite were compared with wind observations from stratospheric balloons. Stratospheric balloons would provide highly accurate data on the horizontal wind speed and are therefore also suitable for the validation of…
Oxygen is the key substance for life and one of the most abundant elements in the Earth. However, it’s still unknown whether oxygen is present and in which form in the inner core with extreme high pressure and temperature conditions, and almost composed of pure iron. Scientists co-led by Dr. Jin Liu from HPSTAR (the Center for High Pressure Science &Technology Advanced Research) and Dr. Yang Sun from Columbia University reveal that Fe-rich Fe-O alloys are stable at extreme pressures…
First investigation of stress state below plate boundary fault of Tohoku earthquake. The great 2011 earthquake that caused the tsunami in northeastern Japan is still remembered for its destructive power. Also known as the Mw 9.0 Tohoku earthquake, the seismic nature of this calamity was not initially entirely clear. While earthquakes resulting from built-up tectonic stress in reverse faulting had only been partially released. In previous studies where complete releases have been posited, the hypothesis was based on seismicity observation and simulation,…
How the current Southwestern North American megadrought is affecting Earth’s upper atmosphere. New research, based on two decades’ worth of data, shows that in the ten years after its onset in 2000, the Southwestern North American (SWNA) megadrought caused a 30% change in gravity wave activity in Earth’s upper atmosphere. More than 30 years ago, Chester Gardner of UIUC’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Chiao-Yao She of Colorado State University’s Department of Physics teamed up to study Earth’s middle…
Radar scans of the Greenland ice sheet reveal the shutdown and reconfiguration of ice streams in the span of a few thousand years. Major ice streams can shut down, shifting rapid ice transport to other parts of the ice sheet, within a few thousand years. This was determined in reconstructions of two ice streams, based on ice-penetrating radar scans of the Greenland ice sheet, that a team of researchers led by the Alfred Wegener Institute have just presented in the…
… highlights sea ice response to climate change. A new study published in the European Geosciences Union journal The Cryosphere could improve our understanding of changes in the atmosphere–ice–ocean system and the mass balance of sea ice in a changing Arctic. Years of research show that climate change signals are amplified in the Arctic, and that sea ice in this region is sensitive to increases in Arctic warming. Sea ice greatly modifies the exchanges of heat, momentum and mass between…
Airborne campaign solves parts of the riddle of clouds. In a major field campaign in 2020, Dr. Raphaela Vogel who is now at Universität Hamburg’s Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN) and an international team from the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique in Paris and the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg analyzed observational data they and others collected in fields of cumulus clouds near the Atlantic island of Barbados. Their analysis revealed that these clouds’ contribution to…
A warming climate is causing a decline in sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, where loss of sea ice has important ecological, economic and climate impacts. On top of this long-term shift due to climate change are weather events that affect the sea ice from week to week. The strongest Arctic cyclone ever observed poleward of 70 degrees north latitude struck in January 2022 northeast of Greenland. A new analysis led by the University of Washington shows that while weather…
– what does this have to do with volcanoes? Despite their differences, cold powder avalanches and hot pyroclastic flows during volcanic eruptions do have a number of things in common, not least their immense destructive power. Completely independently of one another, researchers from both fields have discovered that pulsating flows are responsible for the destructive power of these two natural hazards. A research project supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation is aiming to uncover the origin of this still…
Researchers at the University of Bonn have developed a method that allows the water level of rivers to be monitored around the clock. The cost-effective sensor is for instance suitable for area-wide flood warning systems. The study has been published in the journal Water Resources Research. There is a wide range of methods to determine the level of a watercourse – from very simple ones (by yardstick or staff gauge) to advanced radar solutions. But they all have a catch:…
New study shows that particles from central South America were the main source of iron in the South Pacific during the last two glacial periods. Dust from the dry Puna Plateau in northwestern Argentina was an important source of iron for the nutrient-deficient South Pacific in the last two glacial cycles – especially at the beginning of these cycles. This was the key finding of a study presented in science journal PNAS by a team of researchers led by geochemist…
Measuring the position and topography of the earth’s crust is critical for understanding earthquake risk. Now, researchers led by the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo have developed a novel method for monitoring the position of the seafloor with a drone-based observation device that could revolutionize oceanographic observation. Changes in the earth’s surface occur as a result of tectonic forces accumulating in the crust, a process called crustal deformation. When forces that are exerted on the crust (stress)…
At Te Waewae Bay near Waihōpai (Invercargill), unusual activities are taking place in November. Extensive measurements are being carried out in the far south of New Zealand to study the atmosphere. The location was chosen to minimise human environmental influences and to be able to observe air masses originating from the Southern Ocean region. The research is jointly led by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in New Zealand and the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS)…
Findings could open up a whole new chapter in climate science and help identify subsurface locations to safely store hydrogen for carbon-free energy. Trapped for millennia, the tiniest liquid remnants of an ancient inland sea have now been revealed. The surprising discovery of seawater sealed in what is now North America for 390 million years opens up a new avenue for understanding how oceans change and adapt with the changing climate. The method may also be useful in understanding how…
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