Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Earth
Pinning Down the Sun-Climate Connection
Many scientists propose that changes in the sun's magnetic field and radiation output during its 11-year sunspot cycle also affect the atmosphere, changing Earth's climate by steering weather systems and influencing the amount of cloud cover.
- Earth
Amazon basin is wetter now than in past
Sediments from the Atlantic Ocean indicate that the now lush Amazon Basin was much drier during the latest ice age.
- Earth
Explorers pinpoint source of the Amazon
A five-nation team of explorers has used Global Positioning System equipment to confirm that the source of the Amazon is a snowmelt-fed stream high in the Peruvian Andes.
- Earth
Scientists analyze volcanoes’ killing ways
Death patterns from more than 400 volcanic eruptions through history may reveal ways to reduce the number of fatalities from similar causes in the future.
- Earth
Lake sediment tells of Maya droughts
Sediment cores taken last year from the bottom of a lake on Mexico's Yucatán peninsula indicate that a series of extended droughts coincided with major cultural upheavals among the Mayan inhabitants of the area.
- Earth
Sediments show bipolar melting cycle
Both the North and South Poles have experienced regular and simultaneous periods of significant melting during the past 3 million years, according to sediments from the ocean floor at high latitudes.
- Earth
Snowpack chemistry can deplete ozone
Pollutants trapped in Arctic snow can be reactivated by sunlight when the sun returns to high latitudes in the spring, leading to ozone depletion in the snowpack and at low altitudes.
- Earth
Pollution in India may affect climate
Computer models show that air pollution over India could be preventing up to 15 percent of the sunlight from reaching the ground in the springtime, possibly causing temperature drops of up to 2 degrees Celsius.
- Earth
Y2K: One of the hottest, wettest yet
Preliminary data from the National Climatic Data Center indicate the year 2000 will be one of the six hottest and one of the ten wettest years on record.
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- Agriculture
Tasteful new wrapping can protect produce
New, fruit- and vegetable-based edible packaging could reduce the amount of synthetic wrapping needed to protect food.
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