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

Earth Science

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 2-Nov-2025 00:11 ET (2-Nov-2025 04:11 GMT/UTC)

How trace elements are recycled in the deep sea

ETH Zurich
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Trace metals such as iron or zinc that are stored in deep-sea sediments are lost forever to phytoplankton on the ocean surface. This is what geochemists believed for a long time about the cycle of micronutrients in seawater. Now, researchers at ETH Zurich have discovered that this is not the case.Trace metals such as iron or zinc that are stored in deep-sea sediments are lost forever to phytoplankton on the ocean surface. This is what geochemists believed for a long time about the cycle of micronutrients in seawater. Now, researchers at ETH Zurich have discovered that this is not the case.

Journal: Nature

First named Pterosaur from Japan sheds light on ancient flying reptiles

Kumamoto University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A team of researchers from Japan, China, and Brazil has announced the discovery of a new species of pterosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Japan, marking the first time a pterosaur has been named based on body fossils found in the country.

Journal: Cretaceous Research
Funder: FAPESP, Willi Hennig Society

SwRI-led PUNCH mission images huge solar eruption

Southwest Research Institute
Reports and Proceedings

SAN ANTONIO — June 10, 2025 — Southwest Research Institute’s Dr. Craig DeForest discussed the latest accomplishments of NASA’s PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) mission during a media event at the 246th American Astronomical Society meeting in Anchorage, Alaska. As the spacecraft constellation completes commissioning, early PUNCH data showed coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, as they erupted from the Sun and traveled across the inner solar system.

First Ohio State professor named CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar

Ohio State University
Grant and Award Announcement

Melisa Diaz, an associate professor in earth sciences and the principal investigator of the Polar and Environmental Geochemistry Lab at The Ohio State University, has been named a 2025–2027 CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar.

Isobaric enzymatic assays reveal depth-dependent variation in microbial ectoenzyme activities in the deepest ocean on Earth

Science China Press

In a paper published in SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences, a team of researchers performed comparative analyses of the microbial ectoenzyme activities under atmospheric and in situ pressure conditions in the water column of the Mariana Trench, by conducting pressure-retaining sampling, isobaric transfer, and enzymatic assays in the Challenger Deep. It highlights the importance of pressure-retaining sampling and isobaric enzymatic assays and provides valuable insights into microbial ectoenzymatic activities in the deep ocean.

Journal: Science China Earth Sciences

Fossilized dinosaur gut shows that sauropods barely chewed

Cell Press
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Plant fossils found in the abdomen of a sauropod support the long-standing hypothesis that these dinosaurs were herbivores, finds a study publishing June 9 in the Cell Press journal Current Biology. The dinosaur, which was alive an estimated 94 to 101 million years ago, ate a variety of plants and relied almost entirely on its gut microbes for digestion.

Journal: Current Biology
Funder: Australian Research Council

Can AI accurately detect live oysters?

University of Delaware
Peer-Reviewed Publication

With oyster populations down 85%, researchers are racing to monitor reef health more efficiently. A new study tests ODYSSEE, an AI trained to detect live oysters from underwater images. Research found that ODYSSEE was far faster than humans but not as accurate.

Journal: Frontiers in Robotics and AI

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