Earth

Earth

Volume of glaciers and ice caps is estimated

New topographic data have enabled scientists to estimate the volume of water trapped in the ice caps and glaciers outside of Antarctica and Greenland and to predict how high the sea level would rise if this ice melted.

Earth

An Ounce of Pollution: Particles’ harm varies by person, region, season

A gram of small, air-polluting particles has deadlier effects in certain seasons and regions of the country than in others, and particulate pollutants may disrupt heart function most in people who already have cardiovascular problems.

Earth

Paint additive hammers coral

A pesticidal additive in the paint applied to ship hulls may be contributing to the worldwide decline of corals.

Earth

A Whiff of Danger

Synthetic fragrance chemicals can inhibit the activity of molecules that cells depend on to eject harmful substances.

Earth

Nano Hazards: Exposure to minute particles harms lungs, circulatory system

Inhaling microscopic nanospheres and nanotubes, as might occur during their manufacture or commercial use, could trigger damage well beyond the lungs.

Earth

What’s in the Dirt?

Curious about the abundance of various chemical elements in the area where you live? The U.S. Geological Survey offers a database of more than 60,000 chemical analyses of stream sediment and soil in different parts of the United States. Color-coded maps provide county-by-county data on the concentrations of such elements as mercury, arsenic, selenium, and […]

Earth

Warm Spell: Arctic algae record shift in climate

Analyses of sediment samples taken from remote arctic lakes indicate that the climate across large swaths of the Northern Hemisphere has been warming for many decades.

Earth

Baking dirt to predict erosion after a fire

Lab tests suggest that a wide variety of soils exposed to the heat of intense wildfires end up with a similar resistance to erosion, a finding that may help scientists model that process more accurately.

Earth

Winged solution to biopollution?

Government officials have released alien moths in hopes that they will rein in the spread of an aggressive climbing fern now invading some 100,000 acres in south Florida.

Earth

Straight Flush

Scientists are evaluating the results of the flood they unleashed in the Grand Canyon last November, hoping that it will restore sandbars and beaches along the Colorado River just downstream of Arizona's Glen Canyon Dam.

Earth

Lava fountain driven by reservoir of gas

The gases driving a lava fountain that spewed from Italy's Mount Etna in June 2000 had accumulated in a reservoir 1.5 kilometers below the mountain's peak, chemical analyses suggest.

Earth

Adding mussel to environmental assessments

Researchers have developed a new technique, using mussel shells, that could aid in autopsies of aquatic ecosystems that perished for unknown reasons.