The Huíla plateau, bounded by dramatic cliffs and chasms, stands above the arid coastal plains in the country’s southwest.
Category: Earth
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Image: Reaching the precipice in Angola
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A Mysterious Weak Spot in Earth’s Magnetic Field Has Grown Nearly Half the Size of Europe
Long-term satellite measurements show that Earth’s magnetic field is changing faster and more unevenly than expected, driven by dynamic processes deep within the planet’s core. Drawing on 11 years of magnetic field data collected by the…
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California's largest reservoir rises 36 feet as rains boost water supply statewide
When it rains, it pours. And that’s good news for California’s water supply.
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Ancient Antarctica reveals a 'one–two punch' behind ice sheet collapse
When we think of global warming, what first comes to mind is the air: crushing heat waves that are felt rather than seen, except through the haziness of humid air. But when it comes to melting ice sheets, rising ocean temperatures may play more…
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Greenland's Prudhoe Dome ice cap was completely gone only 7,000 years ago, study finds
The first study from GreenDrill—a project co-led by the University at Buffalo to collect rocks and sediment buried beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet—has found that the Prudhoe Dome ice cap was completely gone approximately 7,000 years ago, much…
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Vegetation might exacerbate urban heat island effect in very dry cities
As temperatures rise around the world, city heat becomes increasingly unbearable during the hottest seasons. The urban heat island effect causes cities to become significantly warmer than surrounding rural areas due to human activities and…
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How a move to the shallows 300,000 years ago drove a phytoplankton bloom
Single-celled algae in the ocean known as coccolithophores play an important role in the marine carbon cycle when they take up bicarbonate from seawater to build their shells. Coccolithophore numbers have been increasing globally in recent years,…
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'Atmospheric inversion' may help predict when a humid heat wave will break
A long stretch of humid heat followed by intense thunderstorms is a weather pattern historically seen mostly in and around the tropics. But climate change is making humid heat waves and extreme storms more common in traditionally temperate…
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Oceans struggle to absorb Earth's carbon dioxide as microplastics invade their waters
A new study reveals that microplastics are impairing the oceans’ ability to absorb carbon dioxide, a process scientists find crucial for regulating Earth’s temperature.
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Ancient African bedrock reveals the violent beginnings of life on our blue planet
You have probably seen the images of the surface of Mars, beamed back by NASA’s rovers. What if there were a time machine capable of roaming Earth during its remote geological past, perhaps even going right back to its beginnings, beaming back…
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