Earth Sciences
Earth Sciences (also referred to as Geosciences), which deals with basic issues surrounding our planet, plays a vital role in the area of energy and raw materials supply.
Earth Sciences comprises subjects such as geology, geography, geological informatics, paleontology, mineralogy, petrography, crystallography, geophysics, geodesy, glaciology, cartography, photogrammetry, meteorology and seismology, early-warning systems, earthquake research and polar research.
Watching the Arctic Thaw in Fast-forward
The frozen permafrost in the Arctic is thawing on an alarming scale. The frozen permafrost in the Arctic is thawing on an alarming scale. By analysing an annual record of…
How Stable is the Antarctic Ice Sheet?
Scientists from Heidelberg University investigate which factors determine the stability of ice masses in East Antarctica. As temperatures rise due to climate change, the melting of polar ice sheets is…
Phytoplankton disturbed by nanoparticles
Due to its antibacterial properties, nanosilver is used in a wide range of products from textiles to cosmetics; but nanosilver if present at high concentrations also disrupts the metabolism of…
Ice sheets at the poles influence each other
Over the last 40,000 years, ice sheets thousands of miles apart have been influencing each other through changes in sea level. An international team of researchers with the participation of…
Breaking the ice on melting and freezing
A better understanding of iceberg melting and lake ice formation could provide new indicators of climate change. Eric Hester has spent the last three years chasing icebergs. A mathematics graduate…
Retreating glacier presents landslide threat, tsunami risk in Alaskan fjord
Using NASA satellite imagery and software processing approaches, a group of geoscientists has discovered a landslide-generated tsunami threat in Barry Arm, Alaska, that will likely affect tourists and locals in…
Microbes feeding on methane release arsenic into groundwater
Tübingen University researchers uncover mechanism by which bacteria dissolve arsenic-bearing minerals – leading to groundwater contamination in Vietnam Arsenic is a toxin now widely present in rivers and groundwater in…
Large volcanic eruption caused the largest mass extinction
Researchers in Japan, the US and China say they have found more concrete evidence of the volcanic cause of the largest mass extinction of life. Their research looked at two…
A new model found to predict earthquake propagation speed
Among the most damaging natural hazards, earthquakes are still today one of the least understood phenomena in Earth Sciences. Earthquakes happen when rocks on either side of a tectonic fault…
Crystals reveal the danger of sleeping volcanoes
A new method shows that it’s now possible to estimate the volume of magma stored below volcanoes providing essential information about the potential size of future eruptions. Most active volcanoes…
