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Earth Science

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 13-Jun-2026 09:16 ET (13-Jun-2026 13:16 GMT/UTC)

Scientists uncover how mid-latitude westerlies contribute moisture to Asian water towers

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A research team led by Profs. GAO Jing and YAO Tandong from the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with international scientists, has determined how the westerlies integrate their moisture into the local water cycle under non-precipitating conditions.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

New tectonic plate boundary could be forming in Zambia, scientists say

Frontiers
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The gas in hot springs could reveal the very first signs of a new tectonic plate boundary forming. By testing helium and carbon isotopes from geothermal springs along the Kafue Rift of Central Africa, scientists have detected changes in isotope ratios that reveal that the boundary has broken all the way through the Earth’s crust to the mantle, allowing fluids to escape the mantle and reach the surface. The Kafue Rift is part of the Southwest African Rift System, which runs from Tanzania to Namibia, which — if it continues to develop — could become a new plate boundary splitting Africa in half.

Journal: Frontiers in Earth Science
Funder: Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, UK Research and Innovation, Geo-Kalahari Energy

Microfossils interpreted as animal traces were actually algae and bactéria

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New evidence and a reanalysis of 540-million-year-old material using advanced imaging techniques rule out the idea they were from worms or small oceanic animals.

Journal: Gondwana Research
Funder: Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo

Scientists link phosphorus spikes in ancient oceans to major mass extinctions

University of Ottawa
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New study reveals brief, globally coherent phosphorus spikes linked to ancient marine mass extinctions.

The findings highlight how nutrient-cycle disruption can contribute to ocean oxygen loss and ecosystem stress.

Journal: Nature Communications

Significant update to ECMWF’s key forecasting systems IFS and AIFS to go live

ECMWF
Business Announcement

A significant upgrade to the global weather system used by the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts to produce forecasts is about to go live (from 12 May 2026) along with its AI counterpart.

A new study explains how carbon dioxide cools the upper atmosphere—and warms earth below

Columbia Climate School
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Even as temperatures rise on Earth’s surface and in the lower atmosphere, the planet’s upper atmosphere has cooled dramatically. This paradoxical pattern is a well-known sign of humanity’s climate impacts—but until now, the underlying physics has remained a mystery.

In a new study, researchers from Columbia University describe the phenomenon’s mechanics, illuminating how it is largely determined by the way carbon dioxide (CO2) interacts with different wavelengths of light.

Journal: Nature Geoscience

Iron minerals help decide whether dissolved organic matter becomes microbial food or long-term carbon

Biochar Editorial Office, Shenyang Agricultural University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Dissolved organic matter, a complex mixture of carbon-containing molecules found in soils, rivers, lakes, wetlands, and sediments, plays a central role in how carbon moves through the environment. It can feed microbes, bind pollutants, influence nutrient availability, and affect how much carbon is stored or released as carbon dioxide. Yet scientists are still working to understand why some dissolved organic matter is quickly consumed by microbes, while other portions persist much longer.

Journal: Carbon Research

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