Phys.org Earth Science

• Simulating the origin and evolution of the North Atlantic Oscillation shows how it helped shape Earth

  A simulation on the origin and evolution of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) has been conducted by a PKU research team led by Nie Ji, Associate Professor of the School of Physics; and Hu Yongyun, Dean of the Institute of Ocean Research, along with a research team from National Natural Science Foundation of China.

• South Africans flush toilets with drinkable water. Study in Cape Town looked at using seawater instead

  As the planet gets hotter and freshwater sources dry up, cities and towns will not be able to continue the global norm of using millions of liters of clean, drinkable water to flush toilets. South Africa's Water Research Commission recently commissioned a study into using seawater to flush toilets in Cape Town. Water engineering lecturer Teboho Mofokeng researches water management and reuse in South Africa and she co-authored the study. She spoke to The Conversation Africa about Capetonians' willingness to pay up to 10% more on their water bills to use seawater to flush their toilets, as long as it doesn't smell or stain their toilets.

• North America is dripping from below, geoscientists discover

  Researchers have discovered that the underside of the North American continent is dripping away in blobs of rock—and that the remnants of a tectonic plate sinking in Earth's mantle may be the reason why.

• Enhanced westerly winds lead to increased ocean heat transport to the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, study finds

  A research group led by Associate Professor Kohei Mizobata, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, including researchers from the National Institute of Polar Research, the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, and the Institute of Low Temperature Science (Hokkaido University), has found that enhanced westerly winds associated with global warming will strengthen the clockwise circulations and transport heat to the ice sheet in the East Antarctic coastal area.

• Surprising number of environmental pollutants found in hedgehogs

  Lead, pesticides, brominated flame retardants, plastic additives, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and heavy metals. This is what researchers at Lund University in Sweden found in a new study when they collected dead hedgehogs to investigate the environmental pollutants found in urban environments.

• A classification of drugs based on their environmental impact

  Scientists at the University of Lausanne (UNIL) and University center Unisanté classified 35 commonly used drugs in Switzerland based on their impact on the aquatic biodiversity. The aim of this research is to provide medical staff with a tool for considering the environmental risks associated with certain common drugs when prescribing them. The proposed list is subject to change when new data becomes available, their rarity being a limiting factor for classification.

• The rivers that science says shouldn't exist

  Rivers join downstream, flow downhill, and eventually meet an ocean or terminal lake: These are fundamental rules of how waterways and basins are supposed to work. But rules are made to be broken. In the journal Water Resources Research, Sowby and Siegel lay out nine rivers and lakes in the Americas that defy hydrologic expectations.

• Air pollution and traffic noise increase the risk of stroke through combination effect

  Research from the Institute of Environmental Medicine (IMM), Karolinska Institutet shows that air pollution and traffic noise together may pose a greater risk for stroke than either factor alone. The researchers found that even at low levels—below the EU's air quality standards and around WHO noise recommendation levels—the risk of stroke increased significantly.

• Tree rings from Canada's Gaspésie mountains reveal effects of global warming dating back almost a century

  A study of tree rings in the Gaspesie's Sainte-Anne River area reveals that snowpacks have been declining noticeably in the region's mountains for nearly nine decades. The researchers say the phenomenon is directly linked to global warming.

• Urban cemeteries are at capacity. Here's how they can be more sustainable

  Approximately 170,000 people die every day around the world—that's around 62 million deaths in 2024 alone. The cumulative effect of this has led to what has been termed a "burial crisis," with most urban areas where burial remains the norm expected to run out of interment space by the 2050s, some much earlier—as in, now.

• Global warming of more than 3°C this century may wipe 40% off the world's economy, new analysis reveals

  The damage climate change will inflict on the world's economy is likely to have been massively underestimated, according to new research by my colleagues and me, which accounts for the full global reach of extreme weather and its aftermath.

• Inner London residents told me their food waste problems—composting definitely isn't the answer

  "It's always frustrated me that we can't compost here—even though I get why. Tower blocks just aren't built for it," said Alexandra, a 42-year-old Tower Hamlets resident, living on the ninth floor. She gestures toward the tall buildings in her neighborhood. Her frustration is shared by many, where food waste collection from blocks of flats remains a challenge.

• Microplastics pollution from glitter can disrupt marine biomineralization

  New research reveals that PET-based glitter microplastics can actively influence biomineralization processes in marine environments, raising fresh concerns about the long-term environmental impact of microplastic pollution on marine ecosystems.

• Torrential rains created devastating inland seas in outback Queensland. Soon, they will fill Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre

  The small Queensland town of Eromanga bills itself as Australia's town furthest from the sea. But this week, an ocean of freshwater arrived.

• Research exposes challenges in flood evacuation planning

  New UC research has highlighted the underestimated relevance of water velocity in flood evacuation planning, a danger highlighted by the flooding in Valencia in 2024.

• New research reveals dramatically higher loss of GDP under 4°C warming

  New projections by the UNSW Institute for Climate Risk & Response (ICRR) reveal a 4°C rise in global temperatures would cut world GDP by around 40% by 2100—a stark increase from previous estimates of around 11%.

• Scientists develop ultraprecise, efficient and flexible technique for counting and analyzing nanoplastics

  While the threat that microplastics pose to human and ecological health has been richly documented and is well known, nanoplastics, which are smaller than one micrometer (1/50th the thickness of an average human hair), are far more reactive, far more mobile and vastly more capable of crossing biological membranes. Yet, because they are so tiny and so mobile, researchers don't yet have an accurate understanding of just how toxic these particles are.

• Volcano erupts in southwestern Iceland after a nearby town and spa are evacuated

  A volcano in southwestern Iceland that has erupted repeatedly for more than a year again belched lava and smoke into the air on Tuesday, just hours after authorities evacuated the few remaining residents of a nearby fishing village.

• 'Heartbreaking' floods swamp Australia's cattle country

  Whole herds of cattle have drowned in vast inland floods sweeping across the Australian outback, officials said Tuesday, as the muddy tide drenched an area the size of France.

• Real-time analysis reveals a much higher proportion of harmful substances in particulate matter than assumed

  People breathing contaminated air over the course of years are at greater risk of developing numerous diseases. This is thought to be due to highly reactive components in particulate matter, which affect biological processes in the body. However, researchers from the University of Basel, Switzerland, have now shown that precisely these components disappear within hours and that previous measurements therefore completely underestimate the quantities in which they are present.

• Q&A: How much does patient travel for health care contribute to carbon emissions?

  Hanna Zurl, MD, a research fellow in the Department of Urology at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and the Center for Surgery and Public Health at BWH, is the lead author of a paper published in JAMA Network Open, titled "Carbon Emissions from Patient Travel for Health Care: Insights from a National Transportation Survey."

• Groundwater gains show Arizona's policies are working, yet climate risks still threaten water supply

  A combination of water management practices has contributed to notable groundwater gains in Central Arizona despite the region dealing with long-term water stress, according to a study led by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and collaborators in Arizona and Colorado.

• AI framework achieves 95.6% accuracy in predicting landslide-prone zones

  Landslides pose a significant threat to people and the environment worldwide. Researchers from the Leibniz Center for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), together with international partners, have developed a new framework that significantly improves landslide prediction using machine learning methods.

• Paleo-flood records reveal ancient deluges that dwarf modern 'unprecedented' events

  Recent "unprecedented" floods are not exceptional if we look further into the past, new research shows.

• Snapshot of Antarctica's past helps predict future climate

  In the first study to consider the long-term evolution of the rivers that flow beneath glaciers, researchers have new insights into the future of Antarctica's melting ice that may change the way climate scientists predict the effects of a warming planet.