A team of researchers shows that a rare and extreme annular warming pattern in the tropical Pacific, combined with the accumulation of warm water in the upper western Pacific in spring 2026, will collectively drive a super El Niño event toward the end of this year.

Researchers at The University of Osaka have developed a catalyst that uses vibrational energy to convert carbon dioxide (CO₂) into carbon monoxide (CO), an important industrial feedstock. The work demonstrates a new piezocatalytic route for CO₂ conversion at low temperature and ambient pressure, offering a potential path toward future low-energy carbon recycling technologies.

Placed within a borehole drilled deep through the layers of a landslide, a fiber optic cable captured tiny, periodic stick-slip events that offer a unique glimpse at the complex movements within the landslide’s shear zone. At the Lantai site in northern Taiwan, researchers concluded that the timing and pace of these stick-slip events was linked strongly to typhoon rainfall and earthquake shaking, they reported at the 2026 SSA Annual Meeting.

The recovery of the ozone layer in the Earth's stratosphere could be delayed by several years, according to an international study led by Empa. The cause is persistent emissions of so-called feedstock chemicals, which are still permitted as raw materials in industry. These ozone-depleting substances have so far been excluded from international agreements because, according to the current study, their emissions and use have been significantly underestimated.