EurekAlert! News by Subject: Earth Science - News by Subject: Earth Science

Earth Science

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 4-Nov-2025 16:10 ET (4-Nov-2025 21:10 GMT/UTC)

First Mesozoic amber deposit with preserved insects discovered in South America

University of Barcelona
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A scientific team has discovered the first Mesozoic amber deposit with preserved insects in South America in the province of Napo (Ecuador). The discovery, published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, reveals that 112 million years ago there was a tropical rainforest with ferns, cycads and angiosperm plants, and describes a unique scenario for understanding the rich biodiversity and Cretaceous ecosystems in the southern hemisphere, little studied so far in the fossil amber record.

Journal: Communications Earth & Environment

US faces rising death toll from wildfire smoke, study finds

Stanford University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Wildfire smoke increasingly threatens lives across the country. A new study shows smoke exposure in the coming decades will cause tens of thousands of excess deaths and predicts where exposure will occur so communities and policymakers can prepare for the health burden.

Journal: Nature
Funder: W. M. Keck Foundation, Stanford’s Center for Innovation in Global Health, Stony Brook University, Harvard University Center for the Environment, Stanford Research Computing Center

Purdue study uncovers why some hurricanes balloon in size and what that means for forecasting future storms

Purdue University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study led by Purdue University researchers has uncovered why some hurricanes grow significantly larger than others and why this growth occurs rapidly under certain ocean conditions. The research shows, for the first time, that hurricanes grow in size much faster when traveling over locally warm waters where the ocean surface is significantly warmer than the rest of the tropical oceans.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. National Science Foundation

WMO report on global water resources: 2024 was characterized by both extreme drought and intense rainfall

Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz
Reports and Proceedings

In global terms, the past year was distinguished not only by extreme drought but also by unusually heavy rainfall. These are the core findings of the report of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on the status of our planet's water resources that was published today. Junior Professor Robert Reinecke of the Institute of Geography of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz contributed to the report.

Biochar boosts black soil health and crop yields, study finds

Biochar Editorial Office, Shenyang Agricultural University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A long-term field study conducted in Northeast China’s fertile black soil region has demonstrated that biochar can significantly improve soil health, stabilize microbial communities, and increase crop yields—but only when applied at the right rate.

Journal: Biochar

Engineers uncover why tiny particles form clusters in turbulent air

University at Buffalo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

716-645-4614

Tiny solid particles – like pollutants, cloud droplets and medicine powders – form highly concentrated clusters in turbulent environments like smokestacks, clouds and pharmaceutical mixers. What causes these extreme clusters – which make it more difficult to predict everything from the spread of wildfire smoke to finding the right combination of ingredients for more effective drugs – has puzzled scientists. A new University at Buffalo study, published Sept. 19 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests the answer lies within the electric forces between particles.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

1 in 8 Italian cetacean strandings show evidence of fishery interactions, with bottlenose and striped dolphins most commonly affected, according to analysis across four decades of data and more than 5,000 strandings

PLOS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

1 in 8 Italian cetacean strandings show evidence of fishery interactions, with bottlenose and striped dolphins most commonly affected, according to analysis across four decades of data and more than 5,000 strandings

Journal: PLOS One

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