Storms, cold, poor harvests -- the year 1816 was a "year without a summer" in European history. The reason was the eruption of the Indonesian volcano Tambora a year earlier. It had thrown huge amounts of sulfur compounds into the stratosphere (at altitudes of 15-50 km) where they spread around the entire globe and significantly weakened solar radiation for several years afterwards. Such intense volcanic eruptions are quite common in Earth's history. To better understand their impact on the climate and the atmosphere, scientists try to reconstruct those eruptions accurately.
Earth
Increased levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) have helped boost green foliage across the world's arid regions over the past 30 years through a process called CO2 fertilisation, according to CSIRO research.
In findings based on satellite observations, CSIRO, in collaboration with the Australian National University (ANU), found that this CO2 fertilisation correlated with an 11 per cent increase in foliage cover from 1982-2010 across parts of the arid areas studied in Australia, North America, the Middle East and Africa, according to CSIRO research scientist, Dr Randall Donohue.
CHESTNUT HILL, MA (July 8, 2013) An unlikely material, cubic boron arsenide, could deliver an extraordinarily high thermal conductivity – on par with the industry standard set by costly diamond – researchers report in the current issue of the journal Physical Review Letters.
Ocean currents have a big impact on weather and climate. Without the Gulf Stream, the climate of Northern and Western Europe would be cooler. Scientists at ETH Zurich now uncovered that also relatively small swirling motions in the ocean, so called eddies, impact weather. A large number of such eddies exists in all oceans at any time, featuring diameters of about one hundred kilometers.
Results reported here by L.L. Brothers and colleagues show the first evidence for widespread seabed methane venting along the southeastern U.S. Atlantic Margin beyond the well-known Blake Ridge Diapir Seep.
While it was suspected that such seeps existed, there was little direct evidence until now.
Coral reefs around islands develop a wide variety of forms, including narrow platforms fringing the coast, barrier reefs encircling deep lagoons, and flights of terraces that have been raised above or drowned deep below the sea surface.
Stretching from the Persian Gulf up through Turkey, the northwest-southeast running Zagros fold-and-thrust belt is a region of extensive crustal deformation and seismic activity.
Near the Zagros Mountains the structure of the Middle Eastern region is the result of the intersection of three tectonic plates, with theEurasian plate being squished on both sides by the Arabian and Indian plates.
Braided rivers, with their continuously changing network of channels, are highly dynamic systems.
Four mechanisms of channel change and evolution are considered the classic mechanisms of braided river formation: development ofcentral bars, conversion of single transverse bars to mid-channel braid bars, formation of chutes, and dissection of multiple-braid bars.
There have been few studies on how each of these braiding mechanisms contributes to changes in sediment storage and to the dynamics of a river.
In inland estuaries and shallow coastal waters, small particles of organic matter, such as organic waste and debris or bacteria, clump together to form an aggregate known as floc.
Flocculated particles can span a range of sizes, from a fewmicrometers to a few millimeters, and the properties and concentration of floc have a strong influence on water quality. To infer the properties of floc particles, researchers have proposed using acoustic backscatter measurements, a common technique for estimating sediment concentrations.
The Qinling-Dabie orogenic complex, part of a large east-west mountain range in the heart of China, plays a key role in helping scientists understand the formation and breakup of the supercontinent Rodinia.
Slow slip events (SSEs), in which tectonic plate interfaces slip slowly and generate seismic rumbling, have been observed in many subduction zones around the world.
These events can provide insight into the accumulation and release ofseismic stress, potentially giving scientists information on the processes generating megathrust quakes.
On 29 October 2012 tropical storm Sandy slammed into the New Jersey shoreline, bringing wind and water that killed more than 100 people and caused tens of billions of dollars in damage.
Though its wind speeds were only equivalent to those of a low-level hurricane, Sandy caused record-breaking flooding in New Jersey, New York, and elsewhere. In lower Manhattan water levels hit 4.28meters (14.04 feet) above the mean low water level-the highest flood waters in the region since sensors were installed in 1920.
Over past centuries, the crews of ships regularly measured some basic properties of the waters through which they sailed, such as temperature and salinity.
These historical observations have proven to be important for climate modelers who are trying to validate their work. In recent years, the importance of the deep ocean as a sink for the extra energy trapped by anthropogenic climate change has come to the fore.
Plant growth has been doubled by adding soil microbes. Plants and soil microbes are constantly interacting in natural and agricultural environments and many examples of one-to-one interactions have been studied. However, the effect of mixed microbial populations on the growth and gene expression of plants still remained largely unknown.
The experimental work, which was performed at the German Electron Synchrotron Facility (DESY) in Hamburg, involved levitating hot metal droplets and observing them as they cooled by irradiating them with x-rays from one of the world's strongest x-ray sources. The research work is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the results have just been published in 'Nature Communications'.