AGU: Mysteries of Enceladus
As much as 50% of the plume shooting out of geysers on Saturn’s moon Enceladus could be ice, scientists reported at the AGU conference. Read the full story here. Read more
As much as 50% of the plume shooting out of geysers on Saturn’s moon Enceladus could be ice, scientists reported at the AGU conference. Read the full story here. Read more
New US Geological Survey director Marcia McNutt talked with Nature this week about her priorities in the job. Read the full interview here. Read more
Footage of an eruption nearly 1,200 metres under the sea was unveiled this week at the AGU meeting. The 50-plus hours of high-definition film, complete with background sound, represent one of the first times that lava has been caught flowing on the deep sea floor. Read the full story here. Read more
Temperatures on the Moon are cold enough to freeze nitrogen, according to new findings from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Read the full story here. Read more
The morning of September 29, 2009, was one Mase Akapo will never forget. Read more
I’d be remiss in not mentioning that my freelance colleague Harvey Leifert is blogging climate topics from AGU for our sister site Nature Reports Climate Change, here. And don’t miss their coverage of the Copenhagen negotiations; the site’s editor Olive Heffernan is there, as is my Nature colleague Jeff Tollefson. Read more
Chalk up another piece of dire news for the Arctic in a globally warmed future. Researchers have identified a previously unknown climate feedback effect suggesting that, as vegetation creeps northward, it will accelerate warming trends already in place. Read more
The GRACE gravity-hunting satellites have nailed another significant observation: Groundwater levels in California’s agriculturally rich Central Valley have dropped dramatically since 2003. GRACE is a pair of satellites that zoom constantly around Earth, the distance between them varying a tiny bit as underlying gravity – say, a big mountain range – tugs the leading satellite ahead ever so slightly. The mission, a joint effort of NASA and the German Aerospace Center, has made fundamental discoveries about how quickly the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are losing mass, and about groundwater depletion in regions such as India. At the AGU meeting … Read more
Change is in the air this year at the fall American Geophysical Union meeting, and not just because of the gossip in the hallways about what might happen at the climate negotiations in Copenhagen this week. Read more
Cities often take a lot of heat in environmental discussions. All that pavement and pollution damages human lungs and warms the climate. But a few sessions this week suggest that cities may be part of the greenhouse solution. Read more