Earth
- Earth
Fighting Water with Water: To lift the city, pump the sea beneath Venice
With technology commonly used in oil fields, engineers could inject large volumes of seawater into sandy strata deep beneath Venice, Italy, to reverse the ground subsidence that plagues the city.
By Sid Perkins - Earth
Lemon-scented products spawn pollutants
Some fragrances used in home-care products can play a role in generating potentially harmful air pollution.
By Janet Raloff - Earth
Dioxin-type carcinogens pose additive risks
Pollutants known as dioxins, furans, and certain chemically related polychlorinated biphenyls have additive cancer-causing effects when mixed together, as has been assumed in calculating the chemicals' health risks.
By Ben Harder - Earth
Chalk reveals greatest underwater landslide
Seismic waves generated by an extraterrestrial object crashing into Mexico 65 million years ago appear to have sent sediment from shallow waters sliding off the continental shelf.
By Laura Sivitz - Agriculture
Learning from Studs
Livestock gene banks offer dividends to researchers hoping to milk higher profits out of dairying.
By Janet Raloff - Earth
Life Landed 2.6 Billion Years Ago
Unusually carbon-rich rocks found in eastern South Africa may push back the evidence of life on land to 2.6 billion years ago, more than twice the current age of indisputably terrestrial organisms.
By Sid Perkins - Earth
Change in the Weather? Wind farms might affect local climates
Large groups of power-generating windmills could increase wind speed, temperature, and ground-level evaporation, thereby influencing a region's climate.
By Sid Perkins - Earth
Extra rainfall may stem warming in Midwest
Increased precipitation in parts of the Midwest may reduce the temperature increases expected to occur in the next few decades as a result of global warming.
By Sid Perkins - Earth
Eye on Mount St. Helens
Keep an eye on the ongoing volcanic activity at Mount St. Helens in the state of Washington. Images taken by the Johnston Ridge Observatory’s VolcanoCam, at an elevation of about 4,500 feet, are updated roughly every 5 minutes. They’re snapped from a distance of about 5 miles from the volcano, looking approximately south-southeast across the […]
By Science News - Earth
Global warming won’t boost carbon storage in tundra
The notion that a warmer climate in arctic regions will lead to enhanced carbon sequestration in tundra ecosystems isn't supported by field data.
By Sid Perkins - Earth
Humming Along: Ocean waves may cause global seismic noise
The slow and nearly constant vibrations of Earth's crust stem from severe winter weather over some of the world's oceans.
By Sid Perkins - Earth
Deep Squeeze: Experiments point to methane in Earth’s mantle
Although today's fossil fuel reserves reside in Earth's crust, a new study suggests that hydrocarbon fuel might also nestle deep in the mantle, at depths of 100 kilometers or more.