Earth Science

In the December 5 Issue:

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Climate might be right for a deal: Copenhagen negotiations will take steps toward a climate-stabilizing treaty
Botanical Whales: Adventures in the Tortugas reveal that seagrass fields need saving too
Breaking the Speed Limit: Studies examine physiology and technology to better foresee the ultimate edge of human performance

::	Earth Science

Top Stories | November 22

Science & the Public: Buried-lakes story wins top award
Some readers may be unaware of our sister publication, Science News for Kids, a weekly online magazine for middle-school readers. This morning, we learned that one of the site’s feature stories — Where Rivers Run Uphill — won this year’s top science journalism award for reporting news for children.
D. Fox
Small earthquakes may not predict larger ones
Quakes far from tectonic plate boundaries may simply be aftershocks of ancient temblors.
Mount Kilimanjaro could soon be bald
The world-renowned ice caps could disappear by 2022, new research suggests.
Aerosols cloud the climate picture
A NASA model incorporates how atmospheric aerosols and greenhouse gases interact, yielding better estimates of the gases' warming and cooling effects.
World's longest cave formation still growing
Minerals still accumulate in New Mexico’s Snowy River.

:: More in Earth Science

World's longest cave formation still growing

Minerals still accumulate in New Mexico’s Snowy River.

Johnstown Flood matched volume of Mississippi River

A modern survey of terrain determines flow rate of the 1889 flood that was one of America's deadliest disasters.

A hurricane-spawned tornado boom

Cyclones striking the Gulf Coast in recent years have spawned more twisters that those that hit the region in the mid-20th century.

Atmospheric rollercoaster followed Great Oxidation Event

Analyses of chromium isotopes in banded iron formations suggest oxygen levels fell for a period after the Great Oxidation Event.

Celestial population boom

Large meteoroids are probably more common than telescopic surveys suggest, new analyses find.

:: Science News
11|21 Issue Links

Aerosols cloud the climate picture

A NASA model incorporates how atmospheric aerosols and greenhouse gases interact, yielding better estimates of the gases' warming and cooling effects.

Johnstown Flood matched volume of Mississippi River

A modern survey of terrain determines flow rate of the 1889 flood that was one of America's deadliest disasters.

:: See all Earth Science

Blogs:

Science & the Public Case of the toxic gingerbread man
By Janet Raloff Nov 21st 2009

On the Scene Changing the paradigm around Alzheimer's disease
By Science News Staff Nov 16th 2009

Columns:

Comment From fringe to electromicrobiological mainstream
By Ken Nealson Nov 20th 2009

Math Trek The four color problem gets a sharp new hue
By Julie Rehmeyer Mar 6th 2009

Not to Miss:

SN Special: The Science of Slumber

Interview: Murray Gell-Mann

SN Special: Darwin Turns 200

2008: Science News of the Year

SN Bookshelf:

Quantum Leaps by Jeremy Bernstein
Review by Tom Siegfried
Buy now | More Books

Reading in the Brain: The Science and Evolution of a Human Invention by Stanislas Dehaene
A cognitive neuroscientist describes how the brain has adapted to reading and what can cause reading...
Buy now | More Books