In the aftermath of the July 4 floods that devastated Central Texas last year, hydrology associate professor Daniella Rempe wanted to purchase a flood alarm for her old summer camp: one that was built for the outdoors, loud, and that could be purchased off the shelf. She was shocked to discover that no such thing existed. One year later, Rempe and her collaborators have designed the flood alarm that she envisioned, and are working to bring it into production.

A new partnership between W&M’s VIMS & Batten School and NOAA is turning routine vessel operations and lost crab trap removal into a new source of valuable bathymetric data. The organizations are collaborating with watermen to track shallow water data as they retrieve derelict crab pots.

Contrary to conventional geological thinking, the Hawaiian mantle plume has gotten hotter by about 250°C (480°F) over the past 47 million years. This discovery, led by Earth scientists at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, reverses the long-held idea that hotspots start out very hot and progressively cool with time. The study also found that heat surges produced the two largest volcanoes along the Northwestern and Main Hawaiian Island chain. 

Arsenic contamination in paddy soils threatens food safety because flooded conditions can mobilize the toxic element and make it available for uptake by rice. A new study suggests that biochar coated with chitosan, a natural material derived from chitin, could help trap arsenic in soil and prevent it from reaching the edible grain.

Biochar is widely promoted as a tool for improving soil health and storing carbon, but its effectiveness can vary greatly from one field to another. A new global study reveals that the amount of nitrogen already present in soil is a key factor controlling both how much carbon biochar stores and how that carbon becomes stabilized.