A major shift is unfolding in the waters around Antarctica. Scientists have discovered that the Southern Ocean is getting much saltier — and fast. This change is allowing deep, hidden heat to rise and melt the sea ice from below. Since 2015,…
Category: Earth
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Antarctica Just Lost a Greenland’s Worth of Ice — And That’s Not the Scariest Part
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Rainforest Deaths Are Surging and Scientists Just Found the Shocking Cause
Tropical trees are dying at accelerating rates, and a surprising new culprit is emerging: thunderstorms. While drought and heat have long been blamed, scientists now believe fast, fierce convective storms—loaded with lightning and destructive…
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Scientists Just Found Earth’s Pulse – And It’s Tearing a Continent Apart
Deep beneath Ethiopia’s Afar Rift, scientists have detected rhythmic surges of molten mantle rock—geologic heartbeats powerful enough to thin Earth’s crust, pry Africa apart, and seed a future ocean. Chemical “barcodes” in volcanic…
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Scientists Discover Bacteria That Devour Toxic “Forever Chemicals”
A study from Catholic University in Piacenza investigates the impact of forever chemicals that pose serious risks to both human health and the environment. Certain bacteria found in soil may offer a way to break down “eternal…
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Rethinking Human Origins: Study Debunks Theory of Climate-Driven Evolution in Africa
The study questions the long-held belief that northern Africa became arid around 3 million years ago, which coincides with the appearance of the earliest known hominids in the fossil record. A study led by researchers at Brown University found…
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MIT Study: Meltwater Ponds May Have Cradled Complex Life When Earth Froze Over
Modern-day environments in Antarctica contain ponds filled with life forms that closely resemble early multicellular organisms. When Earth entered a deep freeze, where did life manage to survive? According to scientists at MIT, one possible…
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Plants Grow Hidden Second Root System – And It’s Helping Fight Climate Change
Scientists discovered that many plants secretly grow a second network of roots more than three feet underground, tapping hidden nutrient pockets and potentially locking away carbon where microbes can’t easily release it. Using deep-core samples…
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Canada’s Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt Harbors Fragments of Earth’s Oldest Crust, Study Shows
Geologists have discovered compelling evidence for preservation of Hadean rocks — dating back to 4.16 billion years old — in a complex geological sequence called the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt, opening a rare window into Earth’s…
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Cambrian Explosion Occurred Millions of Years Earlier than Previously Thought: Study
Paleontologists have analyzed the body profiles of Ediacaran-Cambrian organisms by using trace fossils as proxies for body fossils.
A reconstruction of early Cambrian ocean life in South China. Image credit: Dongjing Fu.
The so-called Cambrian…
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NASA Uncovers a 540-Million-Year Magnetic Rhythm Steering Earth’s Oxygen
NASA scientists uncovered a 540-million-year rhythm linking Earth’s shifting magnetic field to rises and dips in atmospheric oxygen, hinting that the planet’s molten core and moving continents may quietly choreograph the conditions that allow…
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