News by Subject Earth Science

University of Tokyo graduate student Yuuki Wada with colleagues from Japan discover a connection between lightning strikes and two kinds of gamma-ray phenomena in thunderclouds. The research suggests that in certain conditions, weak gamma-ray glows from thunderclouds may precede lightning bolts and their accompanying gamma-ray flashes.

In a new survey of the sub-seafloor off the US Northeast coast, scientists have made a surprising discovery: a gigantic aquifer of relatively fresh water trapped in porous sediments lying below the salty ocean. It appears to be the largest such formation yet found in the world.

New research from the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute shows that Greenland may be ice-free by the year 3000. This research uses new data on the landscape under the ice to make breakthroughs in modeling the island's future. The findings show if greenhouse gas concentrations remain on their current path, the melting ice from Greenland alone could contribute as much as 24 feet to global sea level rise by the time it disappears.

Researchers at the University of Iowa and the United States Geological Survey report data gathered by orbiting satellites can yield more information about destructive earthquakes and can improve aid and humanitarian response efforts. The researchers looked at satellite data from several recent, large-magnitude earthquakes.

Why did a giant hole appear in the sea ice off Antarctica in 2016 and 2017, after decades of more typical sea ice cover? Years of Southern Ocean data have explained the phenomenon, helping oceanographers to better predict these features and study their role in global ocean cycles.

Mountains have character. The continuous gentle, wavy hills and wide valleys of the Carpathians, Appalachians or lower parts of the Alps contrast strongly with the soaring peaks, ragged ridges and deep ravines of the high Tatra mountains and Pyrenees, which are, in turn, different from the inaccessible, snow-covered Himalayan or Andean giants, along whose slopes flow long tongues of glaciers instead of water. Beneath this great diversity, however, lies a surprisingly similar structure.