Much of our planet's mineral wealth was deposited billions of years ago when Earth's chemical cycles were different from today's. Using geochemical clues from rocks nearly 3 billion yea...
Researchers have uncovered a strikingly pattern for ancient mass extinctions: extinctions rates during mass extinctions were significantly higher in open-ocean-facing settings than in epicontinenta...
Biogeochemistry and geology and geophysics scientists have returned from Arctic expedition exploring methane hydrate deposits in the Beaufort Sea and spatial variation of sediment contribution to A...
The oceans play a key role in regulating climate, absorbing more than a quarter of the carbon dioxide that humans put into the air. Now, the first year-by-year accounting of this mechanism during t...
The MIRAS instrument on ESA's SMOS satellite, launched earlier this month, has been switched on and is operating normally. MIRAS will map soil moisture and ocean salinity to improve our underst...
Some 500 years ago there was a change in the circulation in the atmosphere over Scandinavia. This probably led to increased amounts of winter precipitation in northern Sweden for a period.
A new study indicates that major chemicals most often cited as leading causes of climate change, such as carbon dioxide and methane, are outclassed in their warming potential by compounds receiving...
Diatoms are microalgae that are responsible for nearly a quarter of the oxygen we breathe, but how does their glass-like skeleton develop? Researchers have solved part of the mystery concerning the...
A self-amplifying effect presently sustains monsoon winds, but it could also disrupt the circulation over land and sea. The periodical rainfall could stop from one season to another or for months w...
Nine research challenges and four research initiatives that are poised to advance the study of how Earth's landscapes change were unveiled by the National Research Council.