ScienceDaily: Earth & Climate News

New research has pinpointed four high-traffic areas in the Pacific Ocean that should be considered of high priority if conservation efforts focused on large pelagic fishes such as tuna, blue marlin and swordfish are to be successful.

Ice shelves are floating extensions of glaciers. If Greenland's second largest ice shelf breaks up, it may not recover unless Earth's future climate cools considerably.

Global warming can result in the spread of peatland vegetation in the Arctic. An international research group has discovered signs of 'proto-peat', which may be the beginning of new peatlands.

Scientists investigating the underside of the world's largest ice sheet in East Antarctica have discovered a city-size lake whose sediments might answer questions about what Antarctica was like before it froze, how climate change has affected it over its history, and how the ice sheet might behave as the world warms.

The Westdahl Peak volcano in Alaska last erupted in 1992, and continued expansion hints at another eruption soon. Experts previously forecasted the next blast to occur by 2010, but the volcano -- located under about 1 kilometer of glacial ice -- has yet to erupt again. Using the Westdahl Peak volcano as inspiration, a new volcanic modeling study examined how glaciers affect the stability and short-term eruption cycles of high-latitude volcanic systems -- some of which exist along major air transportation routes.

In June 2019, a magnitude 4.0 earthquake occurred beneath Lake Erie just off the shoreline of Ohio, about 20 miles northeast of Cleveland.

Pervasive parasitic infections reduce herbivory rates and can therefore trigger trophic cascades that impact plant communities, according to new research. This work helps fill a recognized knowledge gap regarding the ecological consequences of parasitic infections in natural ecosystems.

A tropical spider species uses a 'film' of air to hide underwater from predators for as long as 30 minutes, according to new research.

Scientists used an unprecedented technique to detect that levels of helium are rising in the atmosphere, resolving an issue that has lingered among atmospheric chemists for decades.

Various technologies, networks and institutions benefit from or require accurate time keeping to synchronize their activities. Current ways of synchronizing time have some drawbacks that a new proposed method seeks to address. The cosmic time synchronizer works by synchronizing devices around cosmic ray events detected by those devices. This could bring accurate timing abilities to remote sensing stations, or even underwater, places that other methods cannot serve. Early tests show promise, but the real challenge may lie in the adoption of this new technique.

Copper is one of the most widely used metals on the planet today due to its electrical and thermal conduction properties. The greatest natural resources of this metal are the so-called 'porphyry' deposits that come from magmas deep in the Earth. In recent research, scientists demonstrate that these deposits are largely produced by mechanisms similar to those causing large volcanic eruptions. At a time when current copper resources are dwindling and this metal plays a key role in the energy transition, this discovery opens up new avenues for the development of tools to find new deposits.

A new study has revealed super cyclones, the most intense form of tropical storm, are likely to have a much more devastating impact on people in South Asia in future years.