Showing 20 articles starting at article 801
< Previous 20 articles Next 20 articles >
Categories: Environmental: Water, Geoscience: Volcanoes
Published New catalyst lowers cost for producing environmentally sustainable hydrogen from water



A team has developed a new catalyst composed of elements abundant in the Earth. It could make possible the low-cost and energy-efficient production of hydrogen for use in transportation and industrial applications.
Published Extreme precipitation in Northeast US to increase 52% by the end of the century



With a warmer climate creating more humid conditions in the Northeast, extreme precipitation events -- defined as about 1.5 or more inches of heavy rainfall or melted snowfall in a day -- are projected to increase in the Northeast by 52% by the end of the century, according to a new study.
Published The next generation of solar energy collectors could be rocks



The next generation of sustainable energy technology might be built from some low-tech materials: rocks and the sun. Using a new approach known as concentrated solar power, heat from the sun is stored then used to dry foods or create electricity. A team has found that certain soapstone and granite samples from Tanzania are well suited for storing this solar heat, featuring high energy densities and stability even at high temperatures.
Published Quarter-ton marsupial roamed long distances across Australia's arid interior



One of Australia's first long-distance walkers has been described after palaeontologists used advanced 3D scans and other technology to take a new look at the partial remains of a 3.5 million year old marsupial from central Australia. They have named a new genus of diprotodontid Ambulator, meaning walker or wanderer, because the locomotory adaptations of the legs and feet of this quarter-tonne animal would have made it well suited to roam long distances in search of food and water when compared to earlier relatives.
Published Global flash droughts expected to increase in a warming climate



Researchers have published new findings on how our warming climate will affect the frequency of flash droughts and the risk to croplands globally.
Published Saving our soil: How to extend US breadbasket fertility for centuries



The Midwestern United States has lost 57.6 billion tons of topsoil due to farming practices over the past 160 years, and the rate of erosion, even following the U.S. Department of Agriculture's guidelines, is still 25 times higher than the rate at which topsoil forms. Yet, we need not despair: researchers recently reported that no-till farming, which is currently practiced on 40 percent of cropland acres in the Midwest, can extend our current level of soil fertility for the next several centuries. This has implications for everything from food security to climate-change mitigation.
Published Engineers harvest abundant clean energy from thin air, 24/7



A team of engineers has recently shown that nearly any material can be turned into a device that continuously harvests electricity from humidity in the air. Researchers describe the 'generic Air-gen effect'-- nearly any material can be engineered with nanopores to harvest, cost effective, scalable, interruption-free electricity. The secret lies in being able to pepper the material with nanopores less than 100 nanometers in diameter.
Published New method predicts extreme events more accurately



A new study has used global storm-resolving simulations and machine learning to create an algorithm that can deal separately with two different scales of cloud organization: those resolved by a climate model, and those that cannot be resolved as they are too small. This new approach addresses the missing piece of information in traditional climate model parameterizations and provides a way to predict precipitation intensity and variability more precisely.
Published 'Sustainable' condenser tumble dryers create hundreds of tons of waterborne microfiber pollution



A new study has revealed that drying laundry using a condenser tumble dryer leads to hundreds of tons of potentially harmful microfibers being released into waterways and oceans across the UK and Europe.
Published Simultaneous atmospheric and marine observations directly beneath a violent, Category 5 typhoon in the North-West Pacific



Scientists have successfully conducted a simultaneous marine and atmospheric measurements at multiple locations directly beneath a violent, Category 5, which is the strongest class, typhoon in the North-West Pacific, before it reached land.
Published Extinct offshore volcano could store gigatons of carbon dioxide



A new study concludes that an extinct volcano off the shore of Portugal could store as much as 1.2-8.6 gigatons of carbon dioxide, the equivalent of ~24-125 years of the country's industrial emissions. For context, in 2022 a total of 42.6 megatons (0.0426 gigatons) of carbon dioxide was removed from the atmosphere by international carbon capture and storage efforts, according to the Global CCS Institute. The new study suggests that carbon capture and storage in offshore underwater volcanoes could be a promising new direction for removal and storage of much larger volumes of the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.
Published Researchers examine cooling power plants with brackish groundwater



Nontraditional water sources can be deployed to help cope with climate-induced water risks and tackle the increasing water demand for decarbonization of fossil fuel-fired power plants, but that could increase the cost of electricity generation by 8 percent to 10 percent.
Published Researchers find new mechanism for sodium salt detoxification in plants



A team of researchers has found a mechanism in thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) which enables plants to provide protection against salt stress for their sensitive stem cells in the meristem at the root tip.
Published How a drought affects trees depends on what's been holding them back



Droughts can be good for trees. Certain trees, that is. Contrary to expectation, sometimes a record-breaking drought can increase tree growth. Why and where this happens is the subject of a new article.
Published What you count is not necessarily what counts



Seawater is full of bacteria, hundreds of thousands live in every liter. But the sheer number of bacteria living in the water does not necessarily mean a lot. More important is how active they are and how quickly they duplicate.
Published Eruption of Tonga underwater volcano found to disrupt satellite signals halfway around the world



Researchers found that the Hunga-Tonga eruption was associated with the formation of an equatorial plasma bubble in the ionosphere, a phenomenon associated with disruption of satellite-based communications. Their findings also suggest that a long-held atmospheric model should be revised.
Published Earlier snowpack melt in Western US could bring summer water scarcity



Mountain snowpack, typically seen as the water tower of the Western United States and Canada, is in decline, according to a new study. Researchers created the Snow Storage Index to assess snow water storage from 1950-2013 and found that storage has significantly declined in more than 25% of the Mountain West, in part because more snow is melting during winter and spring.
Published Communities should reconsider walking away from curbside recycling, study shows



Researchers took a deep dive into the economic and environmental value of community recycling efforts and compared it to the value of other climate change mitigation practices, concluding it provides a return on investment.
Published New supply chain model to empower seabound hydrogen economy



A team of researchers has created a new supply chain model which could empower the international hydrogen renewable energy industry.
Published Ancient climate change solves mystery of vanished South African lakes



New evidence for the presence of ancient lakes in some of the most arid regions of South Africa suggests that Stone Age humans may have been more widespread across the continent than previously thought.