Switzerland’s glaciers are disappearing faster than ever — and the Alps may never look the same. Even during the United Nations International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation, Switzerland’s glaciers continued to shrink dramatically. A…
Category: Earth
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Switzerland Just Lost 3% of Its Glacier Ice in a Year As the Alps Heat Up
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Bacterial abundance drives dissolved organic carbon distribution in North Atlantic gyre, model suggests
In the ocean, a haze made from tiny bits of dead plants, animals, and microbes hangs in the upper reaches of the water. Each particle is just a fraction of a micrometer across, but together the carbon within these particles weighs about 700…
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The wetland puzzle that stumped hydrology for decades—how physics and AI joined forces to predict unmeasured regions
For years, the Prairie Pothole Region has bothered me in a very specific way. On a map, it looks like a normal landscape: fields, gentle slopes, small streams. But hydrologically, it behaves like something else entirely. The surface is peppered…
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Microbes can survive asteroid impacts to “hop” planets
Can life transport between planets from impacts? This is what a recent study published in PNAS Nexus hopes to address as a team of scientists investigated how microbes could have come to Earth via asteroid…
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World’s Largest Acid Geyser Erupts, Right in Our Backyard
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Due to its unique volcanic activity, Yellowstone National Park is home to a…
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Ancient zircon crystals provide a window into early Earth history
There are many open questions about how our planet formed 4.55 billion years ago: When did plate tectonics start? When did the Earth’s mantle begin to vigorously circulate in a process called convection? What was Earth like early in its lifetime?…
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Why Ocean World Might Have Boiling Seas
Could ocean worlds in the outer solar system have boiling water underneath their icy crusts? This is what a recent study published in Nature Astronomy hopes to address as a team of scientists investigated the…
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Exploring Effects, Contamination, & Detection of PFAS
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SIGN INPFAS are highly persistent environmental contaminants that accumulate in soils and sediments,…
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Permafrost is key to carbon storage. That makes northern wildfires even more dangerous
The devastating wildfires in northern Canada in recent years have climate consequences that go far beyond smoke and carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, according to a new study co-authored by two NAU researchers. The study, which looked…
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Tardigrades Reveal Risks and Rewards of Martian Regolith
How can Martian regolith (often mistakenly called “soil”) be used to benefit human exploration? This is what a recent study published in the International Journal of Astrobiology hopes to address as a team…
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