Earth

Humans

Climate meddling dates back 8,000 years

Cutting down trees put lots of carbon into the atmosphere long before the industrial revolution began.

Earth

Major earthquakes not linked

Global seismic risks don’t rise following big events, scientists say.

Earth

Earth/Environment

Monsoons may have sped India's tectonic plate, plus saber-toothed reptiles and leaden bones in this week's news.

Humans

Noise is what ails beaked whales

Large-scale experiments reveal a sensitivity to sonar, apparently at lower levels than other species.

Earth

Global gale warning

Over the world’s oceans, the strongest winds may be getting more powerful, a new study shows.

Life

Fruit-eating fish does far-flung forestry

Overfishing may be robbing trees in the Amazonian floodplain of vital seed dispersers.

Earth

Earth/Environment

Nuclear-test monitoring eavesdrops on volcanoes, too, plus tiny tar balls and nonstick hemoglobin in this week’s news.

Tech

U.S. network detects Fukushima plume

Traces of radioactivity attributable to the earthquake-damaged Fukushima reactor complex in Japan have reached the West Coast of the United States.

Tech

Chernobyl’s lessons for Japan

Radioactive iodine released by the Chernobyl nuclear accident has left a legacy of thyroid cancers among downwinders — one that shows no sign of diminishing. The new data also point to what could be in store if conditions at Japan’s troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power complex continue to sour.

Tech

Radiation: Japan’s third crisis

As if the magnitude-9 earthquake on March 11 and killer tsunami weren’t enough, a new round of aftershocks — psychological ones over fear of radiation — are rocking Japan and its neighbors.

Humans

Record ozone thinning looms in Arctic

Depletion could expose the northern midlatitudes to higher-than-normal ultraviolet radiation in coming weeks.

Earth

Cave formations record Black Sea deluges

Stalagmites in a Turkish grotto document 670,000 years of flooding.