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Categories: Geoscience: Earth Science, Physics: Acoustics and Ultrasound
Published Wildfires have erased two decades' worth of air quality gains in western United States
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study concludes that wildfires originating in the western United States and Canada have erased air quality gains over the past two decades and caused an increase of premature deaths in fire-prone areas and downwind regions, primarily in the western U.S.
Published Fossil CO2 emissions at record high in 2023
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Global carbon emissions from fossil fuels have risen again in 2023 -- reaching record levels, according to new research.
Published Teaching physics from the din of flying discs
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The sound a disc makes while soaring through the air is full of information about how fast the disc is flying and how quickly it spins. This inspired Kyle S. Dalton of Penn State University to combine disc golf and acoustics into an interactive acoustic signal processing lesson. He set three microphones in a line and connected them to equipment that converts each microphone's signal to a data point. Then he threw a disc with a small whistle mounted on top and recorded the flying disc's acoustical signal. The resulting dataset can be used to learn basic processing tools and practice data visualization.
Published More than a meteorite: New clues about the demise of dinosaurs
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source What wiped out the dinosaurs? A meteorite plummeting to Earth is only part of the story, a new study suggests. Climate change triggered by massive volcanic eruptions may have ultimately set the stage for the dinosaur extinction, challenging the traditional narrative that a meteorite alone delivered the final blow to the ancient giants.
Published Antarctica's ancient ice sheets foreshadow dynamic changes in Earth's future
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Identifying how and why Antarctica's major ice sheets behaved the way they did in the early Miocene could help inform understanding of the sheets' behavior under a warming climate. Together, the ice sheets lock a volume of water equivalent to more than 50 meters of sea level rise and influence ocean currents that affect marine food webs and regional climates. Their fate has profound consequences for life nearly everywhere on Earth.
Published Decoding past climates through dripstones
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A recent study demonstrates how dripstones can be crucial for reconstructing past climates. The new approach can provide a detailed picture of the climate around early human occupations in South Africa.
Published how far can the wind can carry a plant's seeds? New model
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Playing an essential foundational role in an ecosystem, plants contribute to the well-being of human health by helping create resources like food and medicine. Therefore, to better understand how plants can maintain resiliency in the face of challenges like climate change, researchers recently developed an innovative mathematical model that can provide fast and reliable predictions of how far wind can carry a plant's seeds.
Published 600 years of tree rings reveal climate risks in California
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The San Joaquin Valley in California has experienced vast variability in climate extremes, with droughts and floods that were more severe and lasted longer than what has been seen in the modern record, according to a new study of 600 years of tree rings from the valley.
Published Landscape dynamics determine the evolution of biodiversity on Earth
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A landmark study into the geological timescale distribution of sediment and nutrients over 500 million years shows that species biodiversity on Earth is driven by landscape dynamics.
Published Network of robots can successfully monitor pipes using acoustic wave sensors
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source An inspection design method and procedure by which mobile robots can inspect large pipe structures has been demonstrated with the successful inspection of multiple defects on a three-meter long steel pipe using guided acoustic wave sensors.
Published Study gives grandmother gecko a place of honor -- and a new name
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Paleontologists have identified a new fossil lizard, found in the western United States, which they say was an ancestor of modern geckos. And they gave it a name that honors the lead researcher's grandmother and great aunt. The discovery of the new species, which they named Helioscopus dickersonae, suggests that gecko ancestors appeared in North America much earlier than previously known.
Published Commitments needed to solve aviation's impact on our climate
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers could find no simple solution to limiting non-CO2 emissions from aircraft.
Published Solar activity likely to peak next year
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have discovered a new relationship between the Sun's magnetic field and its sunspot cycle, that can help predict when the peak in solar activity will occur. Their work indicates that the maximum intensity of solar cycle 25, the ongoing sunspot cycle, is imminent and likely to occur within a year.
Published Minimalist or maximalist? The life of a microbe a mile underground
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers characterize nearly 600 microbial genomes collected from goldmine. The study illuminates 'microbial dark matter' residing below the surface. Microbes divide into two groups: minimalists that have one, specialized job or maximalists that are prepared to use any available resource. Study has implications for how underground activities, like mining and carbon storage, could affect or be affected by microbial life. The lifestyle of these 'intraterrestrial' microbes also provides hints to what organisms could be living on other planets.
Published Antarctic glacier retreating rapidly
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists are warning that apparently stable glaciers in the Antarctic can 'switch very rapidly' and lose large quantities of ice as a result of warmer oceans. Their finding comes after glaciologists used satellites to track the Cadman Glacier, which drains into Beascochea Bay, on the west Antarctic peninsula.
Published Slash-and-burn agriculture can increase forest biodiversity, researchers find
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The slash-and-burn agriculture practiced by many Indigenous societies across the world can actually have a positive impact on forests, according to a new study done in Belize. Researchers found that in areas of the rainforest in which Indigenous farmers using slash-and-burn techniques created intermediate-sized farm patches -- neither too small nor too large -- there were increases in forest plant diversity.
Published Giant sea salt aerosols play major role in Hawai'i's coastal clouds, rain
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study from atmospheric scientists revealed that the coastline can produce up to five times the concentration of giant sea salt aerosols compared to the open ocean and that coastal clouds may contain more of these particles than clouds over the open ocean -- affecting cloud formation and rain around the Hawaiian Islands.
Published Sensitive ecosystems at risk from mine waste
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Nearly a third of the world's mine tailings are stored within or near protected conservation areas, new research has found.
Published Deoxygenation levels similar to today's played a major role in marine extinctions during major past climate change event
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have made a surprising discovery that sheds new light on the role that oceanic deoxygenation (anoxia) played in one of the most devastating extinction events in Earth's history. Their finding has implications for current day ecosystems -- and serves as a warning that marine environments are likely more fragile than apparent. New research, published today in leading international journal Nature Geosciences, suggests that oceanic anoxia played an important role in ecosystem disruption and extinctions in marine environments during the Triassic--Jurassic mass extinction, a major extinction event that occurred around 200 million years ago. Surprisingly however, the study shows that the global extent of euxinia (an extreme form of de-oxygenated conditions) was similar to the present day.
Published Separating out signals recorded at the seafloor
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Research shows that variations in pyrite sulfur isotopes may not represent the global processes that have made them such popular targets of analysis and interpretation. A new microanalysis approach helps to separate out signals that reveal the relative influence of microbes and that of local climate.