Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Earth
Cryovolcano
An ice volcano that erupts slurries of volatile compounds such as water or methane instead of lava.
- Climate
Methane emissions may be far higher than estimated
U.S. fossil fuel and cattle industries may emit far more methane than government estimates indicate.
- Agriculture
Probiotics may protect piglets from E. coli infection
Beneficial bacteria could replace antibiotics in pig feed.
- Animals
Malformed frogs rarer than thought
Frogs with skin cysts or shortened or missing legs make up only 2 percent of the amphibians collected during a 10-year study.
- Climate
Arctic algae crusts preserve climate data
The records show that sea-ice cover has been declining since 1850.
- Earth
Fire may smolder under Antarctic ice
Quakes hint at moving magma that could influence glacial flow.
- Oceans
Extremely salty water is at least 100 million years old
Supersaline sediments off East Coast shed light on Atlantic Ocean’s early history.
- Animals
Gassed snails can’t jump
When exposed to high levels of carbon dioxide, some snails move like slugs and others don’t jump at all.
- Climate
Storms are becoming more intense, moving toward poles
Researchers find that altered rainfall patterns have the fingerprints of human-caused climate change.
- Climate
Historical events linked to changes in Earth’s temperature
Ozone treaty, wars and Great Depression influenced global warming rate, scientists find.
- Climate
Natural aerosols confound climate predictions
Natural aerosol emissions complicate scientists’ attempts to predict future climate change.
- Earth
Greenhouse gas injections may unleash earthquakes
Plans to pump carbon dioxide into the ground to mitigate climate change could create other problems.
