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Categories: Environmental: Wildfires, Geoscience: Volcanoes
Published African smoke over the Amazon



Up to two-thirds of the soot above the central Amazon rainforest originates in Africa. Researchers differentiate soot particles using their relative properties and attribute them to their respective points of origin. They found that bush fires and burning savannah in the north and south of Africa make a substantial contribution to air pollution in the central Amazon all year round, thereby playing an important role in the earth radiation budget and water cycle. This is caused by the efficient transatlantic transport of particles through the atmosphere.
Published Scientists discover fire records embedded within sand dunes



A new study shows that sand dunes can serve as repositories of fire history and aid in expanding scientific understanding of fire regimes around the world.
Published Methane from megafires: More spew than we knew



Using a new detection method, scientists found a massive amount of methane, a super-potent greenhouse gas, coming from wildfires -- a source not currently being accounted for by California state air quality managers.
Published 2022 Tongan volcanic explosion was largest natural explosion in over a century, new study finds



The 2022 eruption of a submarine volcano in Tonga was more powerful than the largest U.S. nuclear explosion, according to a new study. The 15-megaton volcanic explosion from Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai, one of the largest natural explosions in more than a century, generated a mega-tsunami with waves up to 45-meters high (148 feet) along the coast of Tonga's Tofua Island and waves up to 17 meters (56 feet) on Tongatapu, the country's most populated island.
Published Wildfires and animal biodiversity



Wildfires. Many see them as purely destructive forces, disasters that blaze through a landscape, charring everything in their paths. But a new study reminds us that wildfires are also generative forces, spurring biodiversity in their wakes.
Published Study re-evaluates hazards and climate impacts of massive underwater volcanic eruptions



Material left on the seafloor by bronze-age underwater volcanic eruptions is helping researchers better understand the size, hazards and climate impact of their parent eruptions, according to new research.
Published Giant volcanic 'chain' spills secrets on inner workings of volcanoes


Volcanic relics scattered throughout the Australian landscape are a map of the northward movement of the continent over a 'hotspot' inside the Earth, during the last 35 million years.
Published Bushfire safe rooms may save lives


Researchers have built and tested a bushfire safe room that exceeds current Australian standards and could keep people alive or protect valuables when evacuation is no longer an option.
Published New model provides improved air-quality predictions in fire-prone areas


Globally, wildfires are becoming more frequent and destructive, generating a significant amount of smoke that can be transported thousands of miles, driving the need for more accurate air pollution forecasts. Researchers have now developed a deep learning model that provides improved predictions of air quality in wildfire-prone areas and can differentiate between wildfires and non-wildfires.
Published A mechanistic and probabilistic method for predicting wildfires


In the event of dry weather and high winds, power system-ignited incidents are more likely to develop into wildfires. The risk is greater if vegetation is nearby. A new study provides the methodology for predicting at what point during a high wind storm, powerline ignition is likely.
Published Smoke particles from wildfires can erode the ozone layer


A new study finds that smoke particles in the stratosphere can trigger chemical reactions that erode the ozone layer -- and that smoke particles from Australian wildfires widened the ozone hole by 10 percent in 2020.
Published To help dry forests, fire needs to be just the right intensity, and happen more than once


Research into the ability of a wildfire to improve the health of a forest uncovered a Goldilocks effect -- unless a blaze falls in a narrow severity range, neither too hot nor too cold, it isn't very good at helping forest landscapes return to their historical, more fire-tolerant conditions.
Published Wildfires in 2021 emitted a record-breaking amount of carbon dioxide


Carbon dioxide emissions from wildfires, which have been gradually increasing since 2000, spiked drastically to a record high in 2021, according to an international team of researchers.
Published Experts demand fire safety policy change over health impact of widely used flame retardants


Leading environmental health experts have called for a comprehensive review of the UK's fire safety regulations, with a focus on the environmental and health risks of current chemical flame retardants.
Published A fifth of California's Sierra Nevada conifer forests are stranded in habitats that have grown too warm for them


Researchers created maps showing where warmer weather has left trees in conditions that don't suit them, making them more prone to being replaced by other species. The findings could help inform long-term wildfire and ecosystem management in these 'zombie forests.'
Published New technique maps large-scale impacts of fire-induced permafrost thaw in Alaska


Researchers have developed a machine learning-based ensemble approach to quantify fire-induced thaw settlement across the entire Tanana Flats in Alaska, which encompasses more than 3 million acres. They linked airborne repeat lidar data to time-series Landsat products (satellite images) to delineate thaw settlement patterns across six large fires that have occurred since 2000. The six fires resulted in a loss of nearly 99,000 acres of evergreen forest from 2000 to 2014 among nearly 155,000 acres of fire-influenced forests with varying degrees of burn severity. This novel approach helped to explain about 65 percent of the variance in lidar-detected elevation change.
Published Exact magma locations may improve volcanic eruption forecasts


Cornell University researchers have unearthed precise, microscopic clues to where magma is stored, offering a way to better assess the risk of volcanic eruptions.
Published Wildfires are increasingly burning California's snowy landscapes and colliding with winter droughts to shrink California's snowpack


A research team examined what happens to mountain snowpacks when sunny, midwinter dry spells occur in forests impacted by severe wildfire.
Published Western wildfires destroying more homes per square mile burned


Between 2010 and 2020, human ignitions started 76% of the Western wildfires that destroyed structures, and those fires tended to be in flammable areas where buildings are increasingly common. Three times as many homes and other structures burned in these ten years than in the previous decade.
Published Understanding plants can boost wildland-fire modeling in uncertain future


A new conceptual framework for incorporating the way plants use carbon and water, or plant dynamics, into fine-scale computer models of wildland fire provides a critical first step toward improved global fire forecasting.