View,Of,The,Device,Of,An,Oil,Drilling,Rig

Earth's surface bears the visible scars of human activities, from greenhouse gas emissions to deforestation. However, the impact of human intervention extends far beyond what meets the eye, reaching hundreds of meters to several kilometers beneath the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-model-reveals-the-evolution-of-the-earths-surface/#google_vignette" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">planet's surface</a> into Earth's deep subsurface. 



This hidden realm, often overlooked, is now the subject of disturbing research by hydrology experts. Jennifer McIntosh, a professor in the University of Arizona's <a href="https://has.arizona.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences</a>, and her colleagues have delved into the ways humans influence Earth's deep subsurface. 



"We looked at how the rates of fluid production with <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/oil-and-gas-production-linked-to-77-billion-in-annual-health-care-costs/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">oil and gas</a> compare to natural background circulation of water and showed how humans have made a big impact on the circulation of fluids in the subsurface," McIntosh explained.



In a paper published in the journal Earth's Future, they shed light on the significant impact of human activities on the circulation of fluids in this subterranean zone.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Deciphering the hidden world in motion beneath our feet</h2>



The study, led by Grant Ferguson, also from the UArizona, compared the rates of fluid production from oil and gas extraction to the natural background circulation of water. 



The findings reveal that human-induced <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/earth-internal-jet-stream-core/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fluid fluxes</a> surpass the natural flow, and they are projected to increase further with proposed strategies for combating climate change.



These strategies include geologic carbon sequestration, geothermal energy production, and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fools-gold-may-be-a-valuable-source-of-lithium/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lithium extraction</a> from underground mineral-rich brine. 



"Responsible management of the subsurface is central to any hope for a green transition, sustainable future and keeping warming below a few degrees," emphasizes Peter Reiners, a professor in the <a href="https://www.geo.arizona.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">UArizona Department of Geosciences</a> and a co-author of the study.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-earth-s-subsurface-fluid-fluxes">Earth's subsurface fluid fluxes</h2>



These fluxes transport water, gases, and other substances through the subsurface, influencing everything from groundwater resources to geothermal energy.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Types of subsurface fluid fluxes</h3>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Groundwater flow</h4>



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/groundwater-depletion-is-accelerating-but-it-is-not-inevitable/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Groundwater flow</a> represents the movement of water through porous and fractured rock formations. This flow occurs due to pressure gradients and the force of gravity, allowing water to move from areas of high hydraulic head to areas of low hydraulic head. Groundwater flow plays a vital role in the hydrologic cycle, recharging aquifers and sustaining surface water bodies.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Hydrocarbon migration</h4>



Subsurface fluid fluxes also include the migration of hydrocarbons, such as <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/millions-of-orphaned-oil-and-gas-wells-litter-the-world-and-must-be-cleaned-up/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">oil and natural gas</a>. These fluids originate from organic-rich source rocks and migrate through permeable rock layers until they encounter traps or seals. Understanding hydrocarbon migration is essential for oil and gas exploration and production.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Geothermal fluid circulation</h4>



In regions with high <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/underground-water-could-be-a-great-source-of-renewable-energy/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">geothermal gradients</a>, subsurface fluids can circulate through fractures and permeable rock formations, absorbing heat from the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/discovery-ancient-ocean-floor-surrounds-the-earths-core/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Earth's interior</a>. This heated fluid can then rise to the surface, creating hot springs, geysers, and fumaroles. Geothermal fluid circulation is a key factor in the development of geothermal energy resources.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Importance of Earth's subsurface fluid fluxes</h2>



Subsurface fluid fluxes have far-reaching impacts on various aspects of our planet. They influence the availability and quality of groundwater resources, which are essential for human consumption, agriculture, and industrial activities. 



Additionally, these fluxes play a crucial role in the formation and distribution of mineral resources, such as ore deposits and petroleum accumulations.



Moreover, subsurface fluid fluxes contribute to the transport and cycling of chemical elements and compounds within the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/unexpected-molten-rock-layer-discovered-under-earths-crust/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Earth's crust</a>. 



This process has implications for geochemical cycles, rock-water interactions, and the evolution of subsurface environments.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Human intervention in Earth's fluid dynamics</h2>



In <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/un-chief-fossil-fuel-era-must-end-for-humanitys-survival/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">oil and natural gas</a> production, saline water from the deep subsurface is extracted alongside the targeted resources. This ancient water, often millions of years old, acquires its salinity from the evaporation of ancient seawater or reactions with rocks and minerals. 



To maintain reservoir pressures and enhance oil recovery, near-surface water is added to the extracted saline water, and the blended mixture is reinjected into the subsurface, creating a continuous cycle of fluid production and reinjection.



Similar processes occur in lithium extraction, geothermal energy production, and geologic carbon sequestration, where leftover saline water is reinjected into the underground. 



"We show that the fluid injection rates or recharge rates from those oil and gas activities is greater than what naturally occurs," states McIntosh.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Rewriting Earth's history through subsurface geology</h2>



Using existing data from various sources, the research team found that current fluid movement rates induced by human activities surpass those that occurred before human intervention. 



As carbon capture, sequestration, and lithium extraction intensify, the researchers also predicted how these activities might be recorded in Earth's geological record.



Moreover, human activities have the potential to alter not only the <a href="https://www.earth.com/image/the-geysers-the-worlds-largest-geothermal-field/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">deep subsurface fluids</a> but also the microbes that inhabit those depths. 



Fluid movements can modify <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/life-in-the-extreme-microbial-activity-discovered-in-old-faithful/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">microbial environments</a> through changes in water chemistry or by introducing new microbial communities from Earth's surface to the underground. 



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/water-fracking-surged/">Hydraulic fracturing</a>, for example, can trigger sudden blooms of microbial activity in previously dormant deep rock formations.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Earth's subsurface is still mostly a mystery</h2>



Despite the significance of these findings, many unknowns remain about Earth's deep subsurface and the extent of human impact on this hidden realm. 



"We need to use the deep subsurface as part of the solution for the climate crisis," emphasizes McIntosh. "Yet, we know more about the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/lake-sediments-found-in-jezero-crater-hint-at-past-life-on-mars/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">surface of Mars</a> than we do about water, rocks and life deep beneath our feet."



Continued research and exploration of this enigmatic zone are crucial for understanding the full scope of human influence on our planet and developing <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/international-day-of-zero-waste-a-global-commitment-to-a-sustainable-future/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sustainable strategies</a> for addressing the climate crisis. 



While we strive to mitigate the visible effects of human activities on Earth's surface, we must not overlook the hidden impact that extends deep into the subsurface.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-protecting-what-lies-beneath">Protecting what lies beneath</h2>



As we continue to explore and utilize Earth's deep subsurface in our efforts to combat climate change, we must remain mindful of the hidden impact our actions have on this enigmatic realm. 



By studying the fluid dynamics, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-increases-threat-antimicrobial-resistance/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">microbial communities</a>, and geological record beneath our feet, we can develop a deeper understanding of the complex interplay between human activities and the subterranean world. 



This knowledge will be crucial in guiding our strategies for a sustainable future, ensuring that our solutions do not create unforeseen consequences in the depths below. 



As we navigate the challenges of the climate crisis, we must approach the subsurface with a spirit of curiosity, responsibility, and respect, recognizing that the key to our success may lie in the mysteries that await us in Earth's hidden depths.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024EF004496" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Earth's Future</a>.



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Human activities also greatly harm Earth’s subsurface, not just the landmass

Earth's surface bears the visible scars of human activities, from greenhouse gas emissions to deforestation. However, the impact of human intervention extends far beyond what meets the eye, reaching hundreds of meters to several kilometers beneath the planet's surface into Earth's deep subsurface. This hidden realm, often overlooked, is now the subject of disturbing research by hydrology experts. Jennifer McIntosh, a professor in the University of Arizona's Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences, and her colleagues have delved into the ways humans influence Earth's deep subsurface. "We...

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Study: Fracking Harms Air Quality And Human Health. People living or working near active natural gas wells may be exposed to certain pollutants at higher levels than the Environmental Protection Agency considers safe for lifetime exposure, according to scientists from <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/unequal-treatment-protestors/">Oregon</a> State University and the University of Cincinnati.

The researchers found that fracking - a technique for releasing natural gas from below-ground rock formations - emits pollutants known as PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), including some that are linked with increased risk of cancer and respiratory ailments.

"Air pollution from fracking operations may pose an under-recognized health hazard to people living near them," said the study's coauthor Kim Anderson, an environmental chemist with OSU's College of Agricultural Sciences.

The study, which appears in the journal Environmental Science &amp; Technology's online edition, is part of a larger project co-led by the University of Cincinnati's Erin Haynes, OSU's Anderson, her graduate student Blair Paulik and Laurel Kincl, director of OSU's Environmental Health Science Center.

[caption id="attachment_1334347" align="alignleft" width="150"]<a href="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2012/11/Pennsylvania-Has-Become-Home-Of-Experimental-Fracking.png"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-1334347" src="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2012/11/Pennsylvania-Has-Become-Home-Of-Experimental-Fracking-150x150.png" alt="Credit: NSF" width="150" height="150" /></a> Credit: NSF[/caption]

Anderson and her colleagues collected air samples from sites near active natural gas wells in Carroll County, Ohio, over a three-week period last February. Carroll County sits on top of the Utica formation, a deep oil- and gas-rich reef of subterranean shale. The rural county is a hotspot of natural gas prospecting, with more than one active well site per square mile.

The study got its start when a group of citizens approached Haynes, who is a public health expert, wanting to know more about health risks from natural gas extraction.

Haynes got in touch with Anderson and Kincl, and together they designed the study to include citizen participation. They placed air samplers on the properties of 23 volunteers living or working at sites ranging from right next to a gas well to a little more than three miles away.

The samplers are aluminum T-shaped boxes containing specially treated polyethylene ribbons that absorb contaminants in a similar manner to biological cells. Volunteers were trained in proper handling of samplers and documenting of data.

After the study period, the volunteers packaged the samplers in airtight bags, labeled them and mailed them back to Anderson's lab at OSU.

The samplers picked up high levels of PAHs across the study area. Levels were highest closest to the wells and decreased by about 30 percent with distance.

Even the lowest levels - detected on sites more than a mile away from a well - were higher than previous researchers had found in downtown Chicago and near a Belgian oil refinery. They were about 10 times higher than in a rural Michigan area with no natural gas wells.

By looking at the ratios of individual PAHs detected by the samplers, Anderson and her team were able to discern whether they came directly from the earth - a "petrogenic" source - or from "pyrogenic" sources like the burning of fossil fuels. The proportion of petrogenic PAHs in the mix was highest nearer the wells and decreased with distance.

The team also accounted for the influences of wood smoke and vehicle exhaust, common sources of airborne pyrogenic PAHs. Wood smoke was consistent across the sampling area, supporting the conclusion that the gas wells were contributing to the higher PAH levels.

The researchers then used a standard calculation to determine the additional cancer risk posed by airborne contaminants over a range of scenarios. For the worst-case scenario (exposure 24 hours a day over 25 years), they found that a person anywhere in the study area would be exposed at a risk level exceeding the threshold of what the EPA deems acceptable.

The highest-risk areas were those nearest the wells, Anderson said. Areas more than a mile away posed about 30 percent less risk.

Anderson cautioned that these numbers are worst-case estimates and can't predict the risk to any particular individual. "Actual risk would depend heavily on exposure time, exposure frequency and proximity to a natural gas well," she said.

"We made these calculations to put our findings in context with other, similar risk assessments and to compare the levels we found with the EPA's acceptable risk level."

The study has other caveats, Anderson said, the main one being the small number of non-random samples used. In addition, findings aren't necessarily applicable to other gas-producing areas, because PAH emissions are influenced by extraction techniques and by underlying geology.

---

<a href="http://www.orst.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Oregon State University</a>

Study: Fracking Harms Air Quality And Human Health

Study: Fracking Harms Air Quality And Human Health. People living...

Climate Change Helped Reduce Ozone Levels. Houston findings should hold for coastal regions around the world

Researchers at the University of Houston have determined that climate change - in the form of a stronger sea breeze, the result of warmer soil temperatures - contributed to the drop in ozone levels.

Robert Talbot, professor of atmospheric chemistry, said that also should be true for coastal regions globally.

The researchers describe their findings in a paper published this week in the journalAtmosphere. In addition to Talbot, they include first author Lei Liu, a doctoral student, and post-doctoral fellow Xin Lan.

The study relied upon ground-level ozone data collected over the past 23 years by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The meteorological data was collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Climate Change Helped Reduce Ozone Levels

The researchers said they did not set out to find a connection between climate change and lower ozone levels - the number of days in which ozone levels exceeded federal standards varied from year to year but overall, dropped dramatically between 1990 and 2013. For example, in Aldine, one of four sites studied, the number of days during which ozone levels exceeded federal standards over an eight-hour period dropped to an average of 11 days per year during 2001-2013, down from 35 days per year during 1990-2000.

Talbot said the steep decline made him suspect something was happening beyond a city-led effort to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions, one of the components of ozone.

Liu said they first ruled out other meteorological factors, including temperature, humidity and solar radiation. After they discovered the lower ozone readings coincided with days the southerly flow was strongest, they realized that climate change - in the form of warmer soil temperatures - had increased the southerly flow, she said.

"The frequency of southerly (air) flow has increased by a factor of ~2.5 over the period 1990-2013, likely suppressing O3 (ozone) photochemistry and leading to a 'cleaner' Houston environment," they wrote. "The sea breeze was enhanced greatly from 1990 to 2013 due to increasing land surface temperatures, increased pressure gradients, and slightly stronger on-shore winds. These patterns driven by climate change produce a strengthening of the sea breeze, which should be a general result at locations worldwide."

Industrial plants and vehicle exhaust mix with heat and sunlight to produce ground-level ozone, which can worsen asthma and other conditions. The city's rapid population growth - more people means more cars - and the refineries and petrochemical plants along the Houston Ship Channel are key factors in Houston's ground-level ozone.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1997 classified Houston as a "severe" nonattainment area due to ozone levels measured over an eight-hour period. By 2008, the city was classified as a "moderate" nonattainment area.

For the study, researchers focused on data from four locations: Galveston, Clinton Drive near the Houston Ship Channel, Aldine and a site in Northwest Harris County. They also used data on background ozone levels collected from the roof of Moody Tower, a high-rise residence hall on the UH campus.

Background ozone levels have remained constant over the past seven years, they report, dropping just one part per billion. The average background level over that period was 30 parts per billion.

But the number of days in which ground-level ozone exceeded federal standards in one-hour and eight-hour measures dropped sharply at all four sites between 1990 and 2013. (Data for the Galveston site is available only back to 1997.)

In contrast, "the length of time per year Houston is under the influence of southerly flow has more than doubled from 1990 to 2013," the researchers wrote. " ... We propose that the increased flow of 'cleaner' air is diluting the dirty Houston air, lowering the mixing ratios of NOX, O3 and precursor hydrocarbons. It also would advect the polluted air away from Houston," leading to lower potential to produce ozone.

They compared land and sea temperatures over the 23-year period to determine how temperature differences impact southerly flow. Land temperatures increase faster than water temperatures on a daily time scale, Liu said. As the heated air over land rises, cooler air from the sea rushes in, dispersing both ozone and the chemical elements that contribute to ozone.

"We weren't looking at it from a climate change perspective at first," Talbot said. "Then once we saw it was the sea breeze, we knew it had to be climate."

---

<a href="http://www.uh.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Houston</a>

Climate Change Helped Reduce Ozone Levels

Climate Change Helped Reduce Ozone Levels. Houston findings should hold...

Columbians Have Mixed Emotions Over Anti-Coca Herbicide Ban. Manuel de Jesus Sanchez holds up a green poncho to protect his skin from the midday sun. The farmer says he was working in a rice paddy four years ago when a crop duster buzzed by, dumping large quantities of what everyone here refers to as "the poison."
From that moment Sanchez was exposed to the glyphosate-based herbicide used by Colombia to wipe out cocaine-producing crops, he says his skin broke out in a yellow rash. Now white blotches have spread across his body and his eyesight is dimming.
"I never went to a doctor because I know he'll prescribe creams and pills that I can't afford," said Sanchez. Unable to till his farm, he now squeaks by selling candy along the dirt streets where a handful of families live in wood and zinc-roofed shacks.
Tales of harmful health effects, everything from skin problems to miscarriages, abound in this hamlet on the edge of the remote Paramillo national park in northern Colombia. Tracing the health problems to glyphosate is impossible - too many years have passed with possible exposure to other pesticides, and most of the town's residents, many of them coca growers, are either too poor or afraid to travel the three hours by boat and car to the nearest hospital and prosecutor's office to investigate the causes.


[caption id="attachment_2381644" align="alignleft" width="150"]<a href="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/05/coca-leaves_spray_2big_ap.jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-2381644" src="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/05/coca-leaves_spray_2big_ap-150x150.jpg" alt="A plane sprays coca fields in San Miguel, Colombia. " width="150" height="150" /></a> A plane sprays coca fields in San Miguel, Colombia.[/caption]
President Juan Manuel Santos last week decided to halt anti-coca herbicide fumigation in the wake of a report by a research arm of the World Health Organization classifying glyphosate as a probable carcinogen. The move is lending strength to injury claims by dozens of farmers here who consider themselves victims of the U.S.-led drug war in South America. But it's also raising concerns that cocaine production in Colombia could come roaring back after a bloody, decades-old war against the nation's cartels.
St. Louis-based Monsanto, which discovered glyphosate, told The Associated Press that it no longer supplies the Colombian government with weed killer. It and other manufacturers have strongly rejected WHO's March assessment, citing a 2012 ruling by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that glyphosate-based products are safe. They accuse critics of cherry-picking data and pushing an agenda.
In October 2013, in response to an Associated Press article on glyphosate use in farming in Argentina, Monsanto described the herbicide as "even less toxic than the repellent you put on your children's skin." It said the chemical had been misused in Argentina.
Colombia is the only country that destroys coca crops by air and the practice has long provoked hostility from political and environmental groups. Many observers see its suspension as Santos' political gift to rebels he has been trying for two years to lure into signing a peace deal. The insurgents depend on the narcotics trade for much of their funding and liken the spraying, which is carried out by U.S. contractors, to the use of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.
U.S. officials deny any harm has been caused by the spraying and say there is more danger to people's health and the environment from the chemicals used to manufacture cocaine in clandestine labs. If glyphosate is so unsafe, then why is nobody considering a ban on its widespread use in agriculture, they argue.
"This is an argument among the deaf," said Myles Frechette, a U.S. ambassador to Colombia in the 1990s. "Those who argue it does damage will not be convinced by science."
On Thursday, Colombia's National Narcotics Council, which sets drug policy, is expected to approve Santos' call to phase out glyphosate by October in favor of slower-going manual eradication by army units in areas frequently dominated by rebels.
Residents of Crucito consider it a bittersweet victory. They are afraid of the arrival of combat troops and say they don't have any means of sustenance besides the roughly $1,000 they receive from drug traffickers for each kilogram of coca paste.
Currently the most visible presence of the state in the town, besides the twice-a-year fumigation campaigns, is an army checkpoint that restricts the flow of gasoline, food and other supplies to guerrillas and drug <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/scientists-use-decoys-to-track-sea-turtle-egg-traffickers/">traffickers</a> lurking in the jungle-covered mountains beyond.
"Our problems aren't resolved by ending fumigation," said Andres Herron, a community leader. "The government needs to give us an alternative to traditional crops that allows us to live. Growing yucca, plantains and yams doesn't even leave enough money to put food on the table."
Santos' opponents warn that Colombia could soon be swimming in coca, though just as many observers argue that the spraying of 4 million acres since the 1990s has done little to reduce cultivation of the leaf.
The latest survey by the U.S., released this month, shows that areas under coca cultivation in Colombia shot up 39 percent last year to 112,000 hectares (about 276,000 acres). The White House's drug czar attributed the boom in part to an increase in off-limits areas like Paramillo, one of the country's 59 national parks and conservation areas where spraying is banned.
But supporters of Santos' move say the health threat is too high a price for Colombians to pay to keep cocaine off the streets of the U.S. and Europe.
Research published last year by Daniel Mejia, an expert adviser to Santos on drug policy, found higher rates of skin problems and miscarriages in districts targeted by herbicides. It was based on a study of medical records from 2003 to 2007.
Omar Miranda, who in the absence of a doctor is the only resident in Crucito trained in first aid, said he counted 20 miscarriages last year in a town of roughly 75 families. He said there has also been an increase in birth defects.
Although Miranda has no evidence to back up his observation or eliminate other possible causes, it's not hard to find examples of illness. Columbians Have Mixed Emotions Over Anti-Coca Herbicide Ban
Five-year-old Joani Londono was born with a club foot and a missing leg. Her mother, Adevis Diaz, attributes the malformations to having eaten vegetables from her garden just after a fumigation plane flew by.
"A few days later my water broke and my baby was born at six months," Diaz said, watching over her four children as they play on their home's dirt floor. "If we continue in this land our lives will be at risk."
---
Jacobo Garcia on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/jacobogg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://twitter.com/jacobogg</a>
© 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Columbians Have Mixed Emotions Over Anti-Coca Herbicide Ban

Columbians Have Mixed Emotions Over Anti-Coca Herbicide Ban. Manuel de...

The Final Days Of Antarctica's Larsen B Ice Shelf. A new NASA study finds the last remaining section of Antarctica's Larsen B Ice Shelf, which partially collapsed in 2002, is quickly weakening and is likely to disintegrate completely before the end of the decade.

A team led by Ala Khazendar of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, found the remnant of the Larsen B Ice Shelf is flowing faster, becoming increasingly fragmented and developing large cracks. Two of its tributary glaciers also are flowing faster and thinning rapidly.

"These are warning signs that the remnant is disintegrating," Khazendar said. "Although it's fascinating scientifically to have a front-row seat to watch the ice shelf becoming unstable and breaking up, it's bad news for our planet. This ice shelf has existed for at least 10,000 years, and soon it will be gone."

[caption id="attachment_2381676" align="alignleft" width="150"]<a href="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/05/Larsen-B-Ice-Shelf_satellite_1big_nasa.jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-2381676" src="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/05/Larsen-B-Ice-Shelf_satellite_1big_nasa-150x150.jpg" alt="Disintegration of the Larsen B ice shelf. Credit: NASA" width="150" height="150" /></a> Disintegration of the Larsen B ice shelf. Credit: NASA[/caption]

Ice shelves are the gatekeepers for glaciers flowing from Antarctica toward the ocean. Without them, glacial ice enters the ocean faster and accelerates the pace of global sea level rise. This study, the first to look comprehensively at the health of the Larsen B remnant and the glaciers that flow into it, has been published online in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

Khazendar's team used data on ice surface elevations and bedrock depths from instrumented aircraft participating in NASA's Operation IceBridge, a multiyear airborne survey campaign that provides unprecedented documentation annually of Antarctica's glaciers, ice shelves and ice sheets. Data on flow speeds came from spaceborne synthetic aperture radars operating since 1997.

Khazendar noted his estimate of the remnant's remaining life span was based on the likely scenario that a huge, widening rift that has formed near the ice shelf's grounding line will eventually crack all the way across. The free-floating remnant will shatter into hundreds of icebergs that will drift away, and the glaciers will rev up for their unhindered move to the sea.

Located on the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, the Larsen B remnant is about 625 square miles (1,600 square kilometers) in area and about 1,640 feet (500 meters) thick at its thickest point. Its three major tributary glaciers are fed by their own tributaries farther inland.

"What is really surprising about Larsen B is how quickly the changes are taking place," Khazendar said. "Change has been relentless."

The remnant's main tributary glaciers are named Leppard, Flask and Starbuck -- the latter two after characters in the novel Moby Dick. The glaciers' thicknesses and flow speeds changed only slightly in the first couple of years following the 2002 collapse, leading researchers to assume they remained stable. The new study revealed, however, that Leppard and Flask glaciers have thinned by 65-72 feet (20-22 meters) and accelerated considerably in the intervening years. The fastest-moving part of Flask Glacier had accelerated 36 percent by 2012 to a flow speed of 2,300 feet (700 meters) a year -- comparable to a car accelerating from 55 to 75 mph.

Flask's acceleration, while the remnant has been weakening, may be just a preview of what will happen when the remnant breaks up completely. After the 2002 Larsen B collapse, the glaciers behind the collapsed part of the shelf accelerated as much as eightfold -- comparable to a car accelerating from 55 to 440 mph.

The third and smallest glacier, Starbuck, has changed little. Starbuck's channel is narrow compared with those of the other glaciers, and the small glacier is strongly anchored to the bedrock, which, according to authors of the study, explains its comparative stability.

"This study of the Antarctic Peninsula glaciers provides insights about how ice shelves farther south, which hold much more land ice, will react to a warming climate," said JPL glaciologist Eric Rignot, a coauthor of the paper.

The research team included scientists from JPL; the University of California, Irvine; and the University Centre in Svalbard, Norway. The paper is online at:

<a href="http://go.nasa.gov/1bbpfsC" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://go.nasa.gov/1bbpfsC</a>

NASA uses the vantage point of space to increase our understanding of our home planet, improve lives and safeguard our future. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records. The agency freely shares this unique knowledge and works with institutions around the world to gain new insights into how our planet is changing.

For more information about NASA's Earth science activities, visit:

<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/earth" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://www.nasa.gov/earth</a>

The Final Days Of Antarctica's Larsen B Ice Shelf

The Final Days Of Antarctica's Larsen B Ice Shelf. A...

Hazardous-Waste Incinerator In Ohio. A hazardous-waste incinerator in Ohio released dangerous toxins into the air over the past four years, exposing those nearby to chemicals that can cause cancer, miscarriages and early death, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
The federal agency released a 20-page report and found that the Heritage Thermal Services Incinerator in East Liverpool in Columbiana County emitted gases that contained high levels of toxic chemicals 195 times from November 2010 to December 2014. The facility is on the Ohio River near the Pennsylvania and West Virginia borders.
The EPA said the toxins might have included dioxin, which can cause reproductive problems, skin disease and changes in hormone levels; cadmium, which can cause kidney disease and fetal malformations; chromium, which can cause cancer; and other toxic air pollutants that can cause neurological, respiratory and developmental problems.
The emissions occurred through both mechanical failures and operator errors, the report said.
"The question now, I think, that should be put to the agencies responsible for this facility is, `What are you going to do about it?' and `Why haven't you shut it down?'" said Alonzo Spencer, an East Liverpool resident and the president of Save Our County, an activist group that has lobbied to revoke the incinerator's operating permit.
"I think we deserve answers," he said.
Heritage could face fines or penalties for the violations. Company officials told The Columbus Dispatch they want to discuss the findings with the EPA but wouldn't say whether they agreed with the allegations.
Stewart Fletcher, Heritage vice president and general manager, said Thursday the incinerator continues to operate and the company has scheduled a June meeting with the EPA.
According to the company's website, Heritage can process up to 60,000 tons of hazardous waste each year and has about 180 employees. It drew international attention in the 1990s when residents and activists protested against its construction.
An EPA spokesman said the agency could not comment on a pending enforcement case.
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Hazardous-Waste Incinerator In Ohio

Hazardous-Waste Incinerator In Ohio. A hazardous-waste incinerator in Ohio released...

US Coal Industry Facing New Hurdles. Beset by power plant closures, growing regulatory scrutiny and proposed changes in how they pay royalties, coal mines are facing a new obstacle - a review of how coal extracted and burned will impact the air and global warming.
Under a series of rulings by U.S. judges in Denver over the last year, federal agencies that approve mining projects have been told to take into account coal's indirect environmental impact along with traditional concerns about mine dust and equipment emissions.
The immediate effects of the rulings appear limited to a single mine in northwestern Colorado that could lose its permit if a new environmental review isn't completed within four months. But industry representatives fear the rulings, if allowed to stand, could set an example for other judges to follow and eventually threaten the mines that make up the backbone of an industry already facing uncertainty.
Two of the rulings involving Colorado mines, from U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson, say greenhouse gas emissions need to be considered in environmental reviews. A similar case threatens to block production at another mine, in the coal-rich Powder River Basin of Montana and Wyoming. Another federal judge also recently ruled that a mine on the Navajo Nation must consider the effects of burning coal before expanding.
The agency at issue in the two most recent cases, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, is part of the Interior Department and regulates the environmental effects of mining across the country. Office spokesman Chris Holmes said the agency is still reviewing the rulings and hasn't decided what do to next. But fighting them would put the Obama administration in an awkward position because of its efforts to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas.
The cases focused on coal from federal leases, which account for about 40 percent of U.S. production, but could open the door to similar legal challenges across the industry.
In his most recent decision, issued May 8, Jackson said the surface mining office must redo an environmental review for a coal mining project that's been underway for nearly a decade in northwestern Colorado or he would yank the mine's permit. The Colowyo Mine says losing the permit would lead to job losses for some of its 220 miners.
Colowyo is one of two mines that provide most coal for Colorado's Craig Station power plant, which generates about 8 million tons of greenhouse gases annually, according to federal emissions data.
Jackson, an Obama appointee, said if the government "can predict how much coal will be produced, it can likewise attempt to predict the environmental effects of its combustion."
Coal industry representatives said mines already face delays in permitting and adding more review would make matters worse. Colorado Mining Association President Stuart Sanderson said calculating a mine's contribution to global warming is meaningless because it's dwarfed by unregulated emissions in the developing world.
"It's pushing the envelope of regulation that is not in the nation's interests," Sanderson said of the rulings.
But legal experts say the rulings reflect an emerging trend of linking fossil fuel extraction to climate change.
"The agencies could continue to act just as they have been, but the cost of what they're doing will be more public and clear," said Justin Pidot, an assistant professor at the University of Denver's Sturm College of Law.
While he doesn't think the Colowyo mine will be forced to close, Mark Squillace, director of the University of <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=colorado&amp;cvid=b9d5958107674495959982113eb91af4&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Colorado's</a> Natural Resources Law Center, said the more thorough reviews could lead the government to deny coal mining meant for export.US Coal Industry Facing New Hurdles
"I think the government is going to have to give serious thought to whether they're going to allow that to go forward," he said.
Environmentalists say the rulings will help open up what they view as an industry-tilted process so the public can decide if burning coal is worth the cost.
"I think the more we learn and the more honest accounting we get from the federal government, the more we will decide we don't like it," said Jeremy Nichols of WildEarth Guardians, which sued to stop the mining in northwestern Colorado and also was part of lawsuits to block mine expansions in Somerset, Colorado, and Decker, <a href="http://www.earth.com/earthpedia-articles/montana-valley-and-foothill-grasslands/">Montana</a>. US Coal Industry Facing New Hurdles
In the Somerset case, Jackson stopped the expansion of Arch Coal, Inc.'s West Elk mine last year partly because the Bureau of Land Management considered but rejected calculating the impact of future greenhouse emissions.
In April, another Denver federal judge, John Kane, ruled that the surface mining office must consider the effects of burning coal at a northwestern New Mexico power plant before allowing an expansion of the Navajo Nation's Navajo Mine. Environmentalists there were mostly concerned with mercury pollution impacting fish in the San Juan River.
The Navajo Nation company that owns the mine has appealed Kane's ruling. The government did not appeal the West Elk ruling.
In the Montana case, WildEarth Guardians and the Northern Plains Resource Council sued to block the mining of more than 117 million tons of coal, which would extend the life of Cloud Peak Energy's 280-worker Spring Creek mine by 13 years.
The environmental groups have asked U.S. District Judge Susan Watters to halt mining until its environmental impacts are more thoroughly vetted.
Cloud Peak and Montana Attorney General Tim Fox have entered the case on the side of the Interior Department, which wants it dismissed. In a notice to Watters' court filed Wednesday, attorneys for Wildearth Guardians were quick to point out their victory in Colorado in support of their arguments against Spring Creek.
----
Brown reported from Billings, Montana. Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Arizona, contributed to this report.
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US Coal Industry Facing New Hurdles

US Coal Industry Facing New Hurdles. Beset by power plant...

Arctic Drill Ships

Kayaktivists Hold 'Shell No' Protest In Seattle. Kayaktivists Hold 'Shell No' Protest In Seattle. Activists opposed to drilling for oil in the Arctic plan to launch a flotilla of kayaks and other boats on <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/wildfire-smoke-seattle-air-dangerous/">Seattle's</a> Elliott Bay on Saturday, two days after the arrival of a towering oil rig that is the centerpiece of Shell's Arctic drilling fleet.
The "Paddle in Seattle" - a daylong, family friendly festival in a West Seattle park and an on-the-water protest by "Shell No" kayaktivists - aims to continue the message sent as the Polar Pioneer drilling rig arrived: "Stand up for the climate and say no to Shell's drilling plans."
"This weekend is another opportunity for the people to demand that their voices be heard," Alli Harvey, Alaska representative for the Sierra Club's Our Wild America campaign, said in a statement Friday. "Science is as clear as day when it comes to drilling in the <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=arctic&amp;cvid=d1e3254b61324c84bc4ec61307943e4f&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Arctic</a>: the only safe place for these dirty fuels is in the ground." Kayaktivists Hold 'Shell No' Protest In Seattle
The gathering, hosted by a coalition of groups, is expected to draw thousands both on land and in the water. At the center of the paddle protest will be the "People's Platform," a 4,000-square-foot barge powered by renewable energy, said Jonathon Berman with the Sierra Club.


[caption id="attachment_2381694" align="alignleft" width="150"]<a href="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/05/kayaktivists_3big_ap.jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-2381694" src="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/05/kayaktivists_3big_ap-150x150.jpg" alt="Credit: AP" width="150" height="150" /></a> Credit: AP[/caption]
Just a quarter-mile away from the Seacrest Marine Park sits the 400-foot long, 300-foot tall Polar Pioneer, the first of two oil drilling rigs that Royal Dutch Shell plans to use this summer as it explores for oil off Alaska's northern coast. The second rig, the Noble Discoverer, arrived at the Port of Everett last week and is slated join the Polar Pioneer at the Port of Seattle's Terminal 5 at a later date. Everett port spokeswoman Lisa Lefeber said on Friday that they expect the Noble Discoverer to be there for two to three weeks.
The Arctic holds about 30 percent of the world's undiscovered natural gas and 13 percent of its oil, according to Shell's website.
"This amounts to around 400 billion barrels of oil equivalent, 10 times the total oil and gas produced in the North Sea to date," Shell's site says. "Developing Arctic resources could be essential to securing energy supplies for the future, but it will mean balancing economic, environmental and social challenges."
The activists see it differently, however.
The protesters say it's critical that they take a stand "against dirty fossil fuel projects" and want to put themselves on the front lines in the battle for Arctic oil.
---
Follow Martha Bellisle at <a href="https://twitter.com/marthabellisle" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://twitter.com/marthabellisle</a>
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Kayaktivists Hold 'Shell No' Protest In Seattle

Kayaktivists Hold 'Shell No' Protest In Seattle. Kayaktivists Hold 'Shell...

Carbon Dioxide

Canada Plans To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions By 30 Percent. Canada announced Friday it plans to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 amid international efforts to create a new framework for addressing climate change.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government said it formally submitted its target to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ahead of the major climate change conference in Paris in December.
The U.S. has committed to a 26 percent to 28 percent cut by 2025 from 2005 levels. The EU has a target of 35 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. Japan is proposing to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by up to 26 percent by 2030. China, the world's largest emitter, has not officially filed its target yet, but China did set a target for the country's emissions to peak by 2030 in a joint climate announcement with the U.S. last November.
A new international framework replacing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol is to be discussed at the Paris conference. The anti-global warming treaty has been largely ineffective because only rich countries were required to limit their emissions. Poorer countries have been reluctant to make commitments in a new framework.
Harper pulled Canada out of the Kyoto <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/kyoto-protocol-report-card-100-percent-compliance/">Protocol</a> in 2011, saying the accord would not help solve the climate crisis. That dealt a blow to the treaty, which had not been formally renounced by any other country. The U.S. never signed up.
Canadian Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq said the new target is fair and ambitious and reflects the country's economic circumstances. Aglukkaq said they would introduce new regulations on methane emissions produced by the oil and gas industry as well as for natural gas-fired power generation and for the chemical and nitrogen fertilizer industries. There was no mention of new regulations for Alberta's oil sands industry, Canada's fastest growing source of emissions.
Canada might also buy international credits to meet its targets. Canada could get deductions from its counted emissions by investing in environmentally friendly projects in other countries.
Elliot Diringer, executive vice president of the U.S.-based Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, said when measured against current emissions, Canada's target is roughly comparable to the U.S. and the EU targets.
"Given that Canada pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol and that it is not on track to meet its 2020 target, Canada will have to work very hard to persuade the international community that it can deliver on its 2030 target," Diriniger said. "It would require significant effort beyond business as usual to deliver that reduction."
Environmentalists have long criticized <a href="http://www.earth.com/image/the-fall-rhapsody-in-ottawa/">Canada</a> as being an outlier on efforts to curb climate change. Harper has called Canada an emerging energy superpower and has avoided doing anything to get in the way of that.
Canada has the world's third-largest oil reserves, with more than 170 billion barrels. Daily production is expected to more than double by 2025. Only Saudi Arabia and Venezuela have more reserves. But critics say the enormous amount of energy and water needed in the extraction process increases greenhouse gas emissions. Canada Plans To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions By 30 Percent
Under the 2009 Copenhagen Accord, Canada vowed to cut emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, but Environment Canada reported last month that the country's greenhouse gas emissions rose between 2012 and 2013 to 726 megatons. It was the fourth consecutive annual increase.
"What hopefully Paris produces is institutionalized peer pressure to hold countries accountable for their promises," Diriniger said.
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Canada Plans To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions By 30 Percent

Canada Plans To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions By 30 Percent....

Kayaktivists Hold 'Shell No' Protest In Seattle. Kayaktivists Hold 'Shell No' Protest In Seattle. Activists opposed to drilling for oil in the Arctic plan to launch a flotilla of kayaks and other boats on Seattle's Elliott Bay on Saturday, two days after the arrival of a towering <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=oil&amp;cvid=9c5744b4cba241019858b74aee1d9bf4&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">oil</a> rig that is the centerpiece of Shell's Arctic drilling fleet.
The "Paddle in Seattle" - a daylong, family friendly festival in a West <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/wildfire-smoke-seattle-air-dangerous/">Seattle</a> park and an on-the-water protest by "Shell No" kayaktivists - aims to continue the message sent as the Polar Pioneer drilling rig arrived: "Stand up for the climate and say no to Shell's drilling plans." Kayaktivists Hold 'Shell No' Protest In Seattle
"This weekend is another opportunity for the people to demand that their voices be heard," Alli Harvey, Alaska representative for the Sierra Club's Our Wild <a href="http://www.earth.com/earthpedia-articles/perennial-vegetables-to-grow-in-north-america/">America</a> campaign, said in a statement Friday. "Science is as clear as day when it comes to drilling in the Arctic: the only safe place for these dirty fuels is in the ground."
The gathering, hosted by a coalition of groups, is expected to draw thousands both on land and in the water. At the center of the paddle protest will be the "People's Platform," a 4,000-square-foot barge powered by renewable energy, said Jonathon Berman with the Sierra Club.


[caption id="attachment_2381694" align="alignleft" width="150"]<a href="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/05/kayaktivists_3big_ap.jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-2381694" src="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/05/kayaktivists_3big_ap-150x150.jpg" alt="Credit: AP" width="150" height="150" /></a> Credit: AP[/caption]
Just a quarter-mile away from the Seacrest Marine Park sits the 400-foot long, 300-foot tall Polar Pioneer, the first of two oil drilling rigs that Royal Dutch Shell plans to use this summer as it explores for oil off Alaska's northern coast. The second rig, the Noble Discoverer, arrived at the Port of Everett last week and is slated join the Polar Pioneer at the Port of Seattle's Terminal 5 at a later date. Everett port spokeswoman Lisa Lefeber said on Friday that they expect the Noble Discoverer to be there for two to three weeks.
The Arctic holds about 30 percent of the world's undiscovered natural gas and 13 percent of its oil, according to Shell's website.
"This amounts to around 400 billion barrels of oil equivalent, 10 times the total oil and gas produced in the North Sea to date," Shell's site says. "Developing Arctic resources could be essential to securing energy supplies for the future, but it will mean balancing economic, environmental and social challenges." Kayaktivists Hold 'Shell No' Protest In Seattle
The activists see it differently, however.
The protesters say it's critical that they take a stand "against dirty fossil fuel projects" and want to put themselves on the front lines in the battle for Arctic oil.
---
Follow Martha Bellisle at <a href="https://twitter.com/marthabellisle" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://twitter.com/marthabellisle</a>
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What do you do when you have 30 million young salmon ready for their big journeys downstream, but drought and development have dried your riverbeds to sauna rocks? In California this year, you give the fish a ride.
State and federal wildlife agencies in California are deploying what they say is the biggest fish-lift in the state's history through this month, rolling out convoys of tanker trucks to transport a generation of hatchery salmon downstream to the San Francisco Bay. California is locked in its driest four-year stretch on record, making the river routes that the salmon normally take to the Pacific Ocean too warm and too shallow for them to survive.
"It's huge. This is a massive effort statewide on multiple systems," said Stafford Lehr, chief of fisheries for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, which since February has been rolling out four to eight 35,000-gallon tanker trucks filled with baby salmon on their freeway-drive to freedom.
"We're going to unprecedented drought," Lehr said. "We're forced to extreme measures."
Drought and heavy use of water by farms and cities have devastated key native fish in California. Last year, for example, 95 percent of the state's winter-run of Chinook salmon died. The fish is vital for California's fishing industries and for the food chain of wildlife.
For the first time, all five big government hatcheries in California's Central Valley for fall-run Chinook California salmon - a species of concern under the federal Endangered Species Act - are going to truck their young, release-ready salmon down to the Bay, rather than release them into rivers to make the trip themselves.
And California's wild native fish should pack a sandwich and something to read; they'll be spending a lot of the summer on the road too.
"Bone dry. Bone dry," said fish biologist Don Portz of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, who is six years into an effort to restore the southernmost salmon stream in the U.S., the Central Valley's San Joaquin River.
Drought, a dam and heavy use of the river's water for irrigation have dried 60 miles of the San Joaquin. For the young salmon, whose life cycle for millions of years has involved travel from the river back and forth to the San Francisco Bay, that now means a 1 1/2-hour ride down California Highway 99 in a pickup-mounted fish tank.
"You give them that taxi ride down, they make it to the ocean, and come back" in a few years for trapping and a taxi ride back up to spawning grounds, Portz said.
The rolling fish rescues occurring up and down the West Coast haven't always gone smoothly. In January, Oregon authorities charged a trucker with drunken driving after he hit a pole and flipped 11,000 juvenile salmon out on the roadway, where they died.
For some of California's native fish, the rescue from drought often is by bucket, not truck.
Near the town of Lagunitas, in Northern California's Marin County, watershed biologist Preston Brown stood ankle-high in a coastal tributary, searching for endangered California coastal Coho salmon and other, native fish. Decades ago, so many coho salmon filled the water that the noise of their jumping kept people in nearby houses up at night. On this day, Brown and his team find none.
Starting in June, months earlier than usual because of the drought, Brown and others with local environment group Salmon Protection and Watershed Network, will search the waterway. In cooperation with wildlife agencies, they will try to rescue coho and other fish stuck in drying pools of water 4- or 5 inches deep.
Sometimes, Brown said, the bucket brigades get there too late for the stranded salmon. "If they survived the raccoons" and other predators, "they dried up and died," Brown said.
Lehr, the fisheries chief, expects some individual steelhead trout in Southern California will get truck rides two or three times this summer, as parts of rivers and creeks disappear.
As a last resort, when some rivers have no pools of water left to shelter fish, wildlife officials will remove survivors to a hatchery to wait out the drought. Two such isolated native species from dried-up waterways have been living in government hatcheries since last year, snacking on flies that rangers catch in bug-zappers for them, Lehr said, and waiting for wetter times.
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California Salmon Have To Hitch A Ride Thanks To Drought

What do you do when you have 30 million young...

<div class="inside"></div>
Al Gore Confident In Global Climate Pact Evironmentalist and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore is optimistic that world leaders will reach a crucial deal this year on fighting climate change.
Gore met Monday with French President Francois Hollande, who will be hosting a major U.N. <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=climate&amp;cvid=e6d446f5affb44a7a4a73a407f79e12f&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">climate</a> conference in Paris on Nov. 30-Dec. 11.
After the meeting, Gore said, "this conference is the one where the world will say yes to an agreement to reduce global warming and pollution." Al Gore Confident In Global Climate Pact
Gore negotiated for the U.S. at the 1997 conference that produced the Kyoto <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/kyoto-protocol-report-card-100-percent-compliance/">Protocol</a> to reduce global warming. That treaty has been largely ineffective because it only required rich countries to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
The Paris conference is aiming at a new, larger framework, but many differences remain about which countries should do what.
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Al Gore Confident In Global Climate Pact

Al Gore Confident In Global Climate Pact Evironmentalist and former...

Study Examines Ecological Impact Of Sea-Ice Changes.The grounding of a giant iceberg in Antarctica has provided a unique real-life experiment that has revealed the vulnerability of marine ecosystems to sudden changes in sea-ice cover.

UNSW Australia scientists have found that within just three years of the iceberg becoming stuck in Commonwealth Bay - an event which dramatically increased sea-ice cover in the bay - almost all of the seaweed on the sea floor had decomposed, or become discoloured or bleached due to lack of light.

"Understanding the ecological effect of changes in sea-ice is vital for understanding the future impacts of climate change, but it is impossible to manipulate sea-ice at the scale we need to conduct experiments," says the study's lead author, UNSW's Dr Graeme Clark.

"Luckily, the grounding of an iceberg in Commonwealth Bay in 2010 provided us with a perfect natural experiment to carry out research on this important issue.

"Historically, the winds coming down from the Antarctic ice cap have kept the bay free of sea-ice for most of the year. But since the massive iceberg got stuck, the bay has been covered in sea-ice several metres thick, all year round," he says.

The study is published in the journal Polar Biology.

The scientists travelled to Commonwealth Bay in the east of the continent in December 2013, as part of the UNSW-led Australasian Antarctic Expedition 2013-2014, which retraced the route of Sir Douglas Mawson's scientific expedition a century before.

Dr Clark and team member, Dr Ezequiel Marzinelli, drilled through the sea ice in the bay and used underwater cameras to survey the seabed.

The UNSW team, led by Professor Emma Johnston, also examined the historical records made by Sir Douglas Mawson, who established his research station in Commonwealth Bay. Mawson's expedition used dredge hauls to survey the bay, which was then rarely covered in ice, in five locations during a two-year period from 1912 to 1913.

The UNSW researchers also compared their survey results with footage taken in the area in 2008 by underwater photographer Erwan Amice.

"After three years of sea-ice cover, the forests of healthy seaweeds that previously dominated the seabed were in a severe state of decline," says Professor Johnston, of the UNSW School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences. Study Examines Ecological Impact Of Sea-Ice Changes

"About three quarters were decomposing, while the remainder were discoloured or bleached. However, darkness-adapted vertebrates such as brittle stars and fan worms were starting to colonise the bay."

Dr Marzinelli says: "This is the first time a shift from an algae-dominated ecosystem to an invertebrate-dominated one has been observed with a known start date. Continued sampling at the site would allow the rate at which this transition is occurring to be worked out."

Sea-ice not only affects how much light reaches the animals and plants living on the seabed, it regulates the amount of disturbance from drifting icebergs that scour the bottom, and determines the amount of detritus and vegetation that settles there.

---

<a href="http://www.unsw.edu.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of New South Wales</a>

Study Examines Ecological Impact Of Sea-Ice Changes

Study Examines Ecological Impact Of Sea-Ice Changes.The grounding of a...

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.igb.illinois.edu/">Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology</a> reveals how scientists can modify common crops like soybean, rice, and wheat to protect them from heat stress.



“We need to double crop production by 2050 to feed a growing global population, and not only are we not on track to do that, but climate change is further complicating things,” said Amanda Cavanagh, a lecturer at the University of Essex. 



The study is part of Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE), an international research project that aims to develop food crops that turn the sun’s energy into food more efficiently.



“Using an engineering approach we designed multiple alternative metabolic pathways to photorespiration. Testing them in the field showed increases in productivity which led Amanda to significantly move the project forward by showing our engineered plants can withstand pretty extreme temperature stress,” said study co-author and RIPE researcher Paul South.&nbsp;



“As the climate changes and temperature stresses increase the pressure on our global food supply, farmers will need every tool available including engineering approaches like the synthetic biology used here to maintain safe and productive harvests.”



The experts tested plants modified to have more efficient photorespiration to see if they were better adapted to warmer temperatures.&nbsp;



The team found that the engineered plants produced 26 percent more biomass than the wild-type plants exposed to the same temperatures, and had 15 percent less yield loss under the higher temperatures.



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Designing crops that can beat the heat

[sendtonews key="QGPzYnXEtN-1712599-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from Carl...

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes the first comprehensive estimate of carbon density in the Saharan, Sahel, and Sudanian zones of Africa. In an effort to measure the amount of carbon stored across these drylands, a team of scientists used high-resolution satellite images and artificial intelligence to map nearly 10 billion individual trees. 



"The high spatial resolution (50 cm) combined with AI and field measurements used in this study is key to improving tree inventories in drylands," said Pierre Hiernaux, a French researcher working for NASA. "The ever-increasing availability of very high-resolution satellite imagery will make it possible to assess carbon pools and their dynamics at the individual tree level on a global scale."



"This study is exceptional because it is pioneering a type of approach that will revolutionize the monitoring of trees and forests on a global scale: in the short term, it will be possible to map the world's trees from the centre of the Amazon to our schoolyards," said <a href="https://www.inrae.fr/en">INRAE</a> researcher Jean-Pierre Wigneron.



"Many fields of application will become much more efficient and accurate, such as tracking carbon stocks, biodiversity, monitoring logging and protection against illegal forest degradation, in near real time.”



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

[sendtonews key="EjmSP20gQK-2593093-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky" Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features northwest Lesotho in South Africa.



According to ESA, Lesotho is the only nation in the world that lies completely above 1,000 m in elevation. The country is famous for its tall mountains and narrow valleys, and is known as Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky."



Out of a population of around two million people, about 80 percent live in rural areas. More than 75 percent of these people are engaged in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-will-have-a-global-impact-on-agriculture/">agriculture</a>, including rainfed cereal production and animal grazing.&nbsp;



ESA reports that the country’s agricultural system faces a growing number of issues, with climate-related vulnerabilities such as drought, floods and extreme temperatures occurring more frequently. 



Diamonds are amongst the minerals found in the mountains. Indeed, Lesotho can truly be called the Kingdom in the Sky. Beautiful, culturally rich, safe, affordable, and easily accessible from Durban and Johannesburg, mountainous Lesotho is a vastly underrated travel destination. the Kingdom of Lesotho (Sotho: 'Muso oa Lesotho) is an enclaved country in southern Africa. It is just over 30,000 km2 (11,583 sq mi) in size and has a population of around 2 million.



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 



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Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> features a visual dataset of.methane emissions from wetlands across the globe. Atmospheric methane levels have reached record highs in recent years, and wetlands are a major source of these emissions.&nbsp;



"Methane is an important greenhouse gas that contributes substantially to global warming. On a molecule by molecule basis, methane is much more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, the main driver of warming," says NASA.



"Though human activities, including agriculture, oil and natural gas production and use, and waste disposal, collectively contribute the majority of methane to the atmosphere, about a third of total methane emissions comes from wetlands."&nbsp;



According to NASA, understanding methane emissions from wetlands and other natural sources is critically important for scientists and policymakers who are working to combat climate change by reducing emissions from human activities.



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

[sendtonews key="f8fukm28Vz-2491833-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> reveals the evolution of the Columbia Glacier in southeastern Alaska. Columbia is among the fastest shrinking glaciers in the world, and the video documents its rapid retreat over the years.&nbsp;



Columbia Glacier is a large, multi-branched calving glacier that flows out of the Chugach Mountains to the Prince William Sound.&nbsp;



According to USGS, Columbia had a long history of stability prior to 1980, with a length 41 miles, and small, short-lived advances or retreats.



In the years since 1980, however, satellite images have captured Columbia’s alarming retreat. By using false-color images, scientists can distinguish between snow and ice, open water, vegetation, and rocky debris on the glacier’s surface.



The series of false-color images featured in today's video were acquired over the span of 35 years. You can see that by 2021, the glacier’s main branch had retreated about 15 miles from its initial position.



The Columbia Glacier has also lost more than 50 percent of its volume, mostly due to calving. <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/nasa-reveals-3d-visual-of-an-atmospheric-river/">NASA</a> reports that while climate change likely started the retreat, mechanical processes kept the disintegration going.



The NASA images are provided by Jesse Allen, Robert Simmon, Joshua Stevens, and Lauren Dauphin using data from Landsat satellites, from the U.S. Geological Survey, and data from MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite. The structure of Columbia’s moraine played a large role in the stability of the glacier before 1980. 



Like other tidewater glaciers, the Columbia built up a moraine over time, and the mixture of ice and rock functioned like a dam keeping out the sea. It was supported on one end by the shoreline and by the underwater terminal moraine at the other.



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/&nbsp; NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes how record-breaking heat expressed itself around the world in 2022.



Scientists have determined that 2022 was the 5th warmest year since 1880. Furthermore, the last nine consecutive years have been the warmest on record.



From devastating floods and wildfires to natural disasters like Hurricane Ian, 2022 showed us yet again how a warming climate affects people across the globe.&nbsp;



"As we look back at 20:22 and years past, we see that each year we better understand the challenges we face and how important it is to meet them," says NASA.



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes Earth’s interconnected systems, and how this network is affected by rising temperatures.&nbsp;



During 2020, average global temperatures matched the hottest year on record. The hurricane season was also record-breaking, with many of the storms intensifying at extraordinary speeds. Hot water in the ocean is fuel for hurricanes. The satellite data shows that it's all one interconnected system showing how Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected.



According to NASA, dust swept up from Northern Africa plays a major role in the formation of hurricanes, and is also a key source of fertilization in the Amazon rainforest. As a result of<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seagrass-wasting-disease-is-fueled-by-climate-change/"> climate</a> change, dust plumes are expected to decline, which will have an effect on vegetation far away.&nbsp;



Images from Earth-observing satellites show how the world’s plant life is affected by natural disasters, fires, and deforestation. Satellites also reveal how widespread changes in vegetation impact waterways,&nbsp; the climate, air quality. Satellites communicate by using radio waves to send signals to the antennas on the Earth. "Earth From Space" is a groundbreaking two-hour special that reveals a spectacular new space-based vision of our planet. 



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

[sendtonews key="JbW4VsY53O-1632195-12187" type="single"] Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected...

Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://welcome.miami.edu/">University of Miami</a> Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science explores how changes in water temperatures have affected tiger shark habitats and movements in the North Atlantic Ocean. The study reveals that rising temperatures have caused the sharks to shift toward the poles over the past 40 years.



“Tiger shark annual migrations have expanded poleward, paralleling rising water temperatures,” explained study lead author Neil Hammerschlag. “These results have consequences for tiger shark conservation, since shifts in their movements outside of marine protected areas may leave them more vulnerable to commercial fishing.”



The researchers analyzed nine years of tracking data from satellite-tagged tiger sharks, combined with four decades of conventional tag and recapture data provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Cooperative Shark Tagging Program.



The experts found that during the last decade of record heat, for every one-degree Celsius increase in water temperatures, tiger sharks migrated further poleward by over 400 kilometers. They also migrated two weeks earlier than usual to waters off the northeastern coast of the United States.



“Given their role as apex predators, these changes to tiger shark movements may alter predator-prey interactions, leading to ecological imbalances, and more frequent encounters with humans,” concluded Professor Hammerschlag.



Video Credit: University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

Today’s Video of the Day from the University of Miami...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> is focused on the melt ponds that emerge during the spring and summer on the Greenland Ice Sheet, which is the largest ice mass in the northern hemisphere.



"Melt ponds are vast pools of open water that form on both sea ice and ice sheets and are visible as turquoise-blue pools of water in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image," says ESA.



"When snow and ice melts atop glaciers, water flows in channels and streams and collects in depressions on the surface. These melt ponds can speed up the melting of the surrounding ice since they greatly reduce the ice’s ability to reflect sunlight."



"This can create a positive feedback where an increasing number of melt ponds absorb more heat which causes ice cover to melt even faster."



According to ESA, Greenland has been hit with a late-season heatwave that began in early September. This caused the type of melt event that usually occurs in the middle of summer.



"In a recent paper published in Nature Climate Change, scientists found that major sea-level rise from the melting of the Greenland ice cap is now ‘inevitable’ even if the burning of fossil fuels were to halt overnight," says ESA. "Using satellite observations of Greenland ice loss and ice cap from 2000 to 2019, the team found the losses will lead to a minimum rise of 27 cm regardless of climate change."



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes how Earth is unique in our solar system for its ability to sustain liquid water on its surface. But now, the water cycle is shifting as the climate warms, and scientists must find ways to predict how these changes will affect water availability.



Overall, 96 percent of Earth's water is saltwater, and nearly all of freshwater is found in ice and groundwater. These sources of water are linked as it passes through solid, liquid and gas phases.



In a warmer climate, the water cycle will be transformed. It will be easier for water to evaporate and form clouds, and storms will become more frequent and intense. Some regions will get too much water, while others will be left without enough water. In addition, soil moisture will be lost - which threatens food security.



Scientists are using satellite data from over the last 40 years to track changes that are happening in the water cycle. This will ultimately help us prepare for extreme events and better manage our water resources, according to ESA.



Video Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Tracking changes in Earth's water cycle

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Saturn,-,High,Resolution,3d,Images,Presents,Planets,Of,The

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a> features images of Saturn from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The photographs capture the start of the mysterious "spoke season" on Saturn - when unexplained features appear on its rings. 



According to NASA, both the cause of the spokes and their seasonal variability have yet to be fully explained by planetary scientists.



"Like Earth, Saturn is tilted on its axis and therefore has four seasons, though because of Saturn's much larger orbit, each season lasts approximately seven Earth years. Equinox occurs when the rings are tilted edge-on to the Sun," explains NASA.



"The spokes disappear when it is near summer or winter solstice on Saturn. (When the Sun appears to reach either its highest or lowest latitude in the northern or southern hemisphere of a planet.) As the autumnal equinox of Saturn's northern hemisphere on May 6, 2025, draws near, the spokes are expected to become increasingly prominent and observable."



Experts believe that the spokes may be a product of the planet's variable magnetic field. When magnetic fields interact with solar wind, an electrically charged environment is created. This phenomenon is visible on Earth as the northern lights.&nbsp;



"Scientists think that the smallest, dust-sized icy ring particles can become charged as well, which temporarily levitates those particles above the rest of the larger icy particles and boulders in the rings," says NASA.



The spokes were first observed in the early 1980s by NASA's Voyager mission. Depending on the angle of the rings, the spokes can appear dark or light.



"Thanks to Hubble's OPAL program, which is building an archive of data on the outer solar system planets, we will have longer dedicated time to study Saturn’s spokes this season than ever before," said NASA senior planetary scientist Amy Simon, head of the Hubble Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program.



"Despite years of excellent observations by the Cassini mission, the precise beginning and duration of the spoke season is still unpredictable, rather like predicting the first storm during hurricane season."



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Mysterious "spoke season" captured on Saturn

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Closeup,Of,Fresh,Green,The,Napier,Bush,Grass,As,Animal

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="http://www.ntu.edu.sg/">NTU Singapore</a> reveals that some plants can remove toxic heavy metals from soil.&nbsp;



The researchers analyzed samples of various tropical plant species to test for levels of heavy metals and metalloids. The study showed that there are existing plants with high levels of these contaminants, which means that these species are great candidates for drawing pollutants out of the soil.&nbsp;



Among the plants examined in the study, 12 species had accumulated several types of heavy metals and metalloids. These plants are widely available, including species that are native to Singapore.



“In a small nation like Singapore, land may be repurposed to support new development plans, so it is important that we have a green and sustainable way to remediate land that is contaminated," said Professor Lam Yeng Ming.



"We set out to uncover how to better make use of tropical plants to do phytoremediation and through advanced characterization techniques, we showed how some of these tropical plant species can be an environmentally friendly and literally a 'green' way to remove contaminants in soil."&nbsp;



"Phytoremediation also has benefits of cost effectiveness, simplicity of management, aesthetic advantages, and long-term applicability and sustainability. The strategy prevents erosion and metal leaching by stabilizing or accumulating heavy metals, so that helps reduce the risk of contaminant spread.”



Video Credit: NTU Singapore



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Plants help remove heavy metals from contaminated soil

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> describes why herbicides are not as effective in killing weeds anymore. In the 20th century, chemical companies developed thousands of herbicides. The most commonly used herbicide was glyphosate, which was introduced in 1974.



Over the past few decades, dozens of species of weeds have evolved resistance to glyphosate. Depending on the site of action, the part of the plant that an herbicide interacts with, weeds may even be resistant to herbicides that have not been developed yet.&nbsp;



With increasing resistance to glyphosate and other herbicides, weeds are - once again - becoming a major concern for farmers.&nbsp;



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Weeds are becoming increasingly resistant to herbicides

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/">NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory</a> (JPL) describes a dust storm on Mars that was nearly twice the size of the United States. As the storm covered the southern hemisphere of the planet, some of NASA’s explorers had to delay their normal activities.



NASA’s Insight lander put itself in a "safe mode" for 11 days to conserve battery power because solar power was disrupted by the dust. The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter postponed flights until conditions improved.



"A fleet of NASA orbiters monitor Martian dust storms like this one and serve as lifelines to Earth by relaying data from the rovers and lander on the ground back to the team. This includes the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MAVEN, and Odyssey," reports JPL.



"Dust storms like this recent one start close to the ground and are spread by wind as they rise – warming the cold Martian atmosphere."



The images in the video were captured by NASA’s Curiosity as the dust rolled in. A fleet of orbiters monitored the dust storm from above, relaying data from Mars’ explorers back to scientists on Earth.



Video &amp; Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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NASA monitors giant dust storms on Mars

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="http://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz. This strait provides the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean.



Qeshm is separated from the Iranian coast by the Clarence Strait, also known as Khuran.&nbsp;The Hara Forest Protected Area is a network of shallow waterways and forest located between the island and the mainland. This protected region is home to sea turtles, snakes, and more than 150 species of migrating birds.



Qeshm is famous for its wide range of&nbsp;ecotourist&nbsp;attractions, such as the&nbsp;Hara marine forests. According to environmentalists, about 1.5 percent of the world birds and 25 percent of Iran's native <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/female-hummingbirds-avoid-sexual-harassment-by-looking-like-males/">birds</a> annually migrate to the forests, which are the first national geo park in Iran.



Tourists are also drawn to the island to see an age-old Portuguese&nbsp;fort, historic mosques, the&nbsp;Seyyed Mozaffar&nbsp;and&nbsp;Bibi Maryam&nbsp;shrines, and the "Valley of Stars."



The average temperature on the island is 81 degress and the region is often hot and humid. From June to August, the island is described as being oppressively hot. The ideal time to visit is during the winter season. 



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Inhambane Bay in southeast Mozambique.&nbsp;



"Inhambane Bay is a deep inlet into which the small Mutamba River flows," says ESA. "On one side of the bay lies the historical city of Inhambane, capital of the Inhambane Province, while the sister city of Maxixe, the economic capital of Inhambane, sits across from it. The province is the second largest grower of cashews, after Nampula, and it also produces coconut and citrus fruits."



The beaches of Barra and Tofo are popular with tourists. There are also coral reefs along the long coastline of Inhambane, making it an ideal destination for scuba diving and snorkeling.



"Mozambique’s extensive coastline heightens the country’s vulnerability to tropical cyclones that develop in the Indian Ocean as well as storm surge flooding," says ESA.



"More than half of the population lives in low lying coastal areas, putting communities at risk. Inhambane Bay was dangerously close to where Cyclone Idai made landfall in 2019 causing widespread destruction to the country."



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Inhambane Bay in southeast Mozambique

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency </a>&nbsp;features the Kangerlussuaq Glacier, one of the largest tidewater outlet glaciers in Greenland. The glacier is located on the east coast of the Greenland ice sheet.



As human-induced climate change continues to drive up temperatures, global ice loss is accelerating at an alarming rate. ESA reports that, over the past decade alone, 3.5 trillion tons of ice have melted from the Greenland ice sheet. This is enough to cover the UK with meltwater 15 meters deep.



Based on satellite imagery, researchers determined that Kangerlussuaq entered a new phase of rapid retreat and acceleration in 2017. In their study, published in <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feart.2019.00123/full">Frontiers in Earth Science</a>,&nbsp; the experts report that the glacier's ice front is now at its most retreated position since the early 20th century.



"Given Kangerlussuaq’s previous impacts on both the magnitude and pattern of ice sheet wide mass loss, we predict that its new phase of retreat, acceleration and thinning will markedly enhance the south-east region’s contribution to increasing discharge from the ice sheet," wrote the study authors.&nbsp;&nbsp;



"More broadly, accurate forecasting of the ice sheet’s contribution to sea level rise will require a deeper understanding of, and responses to, these non-linear ice dynamic processes."



Video Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Kangerlussuaq Glacier on the Greenland ice sheet

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes the complex relationship between ocean and climate. ESA's Climate Change Initiative will help us understand how oceans influence the climate and how climate change is impacting the oceans.&nbsp;



"Earth’s oceans are huge heat stores, soaking up 93% of the excess heat from human activity over the past 70 years. Ocean currents redistribute heat around the planet, from the Equator to the poles. Where this ocean heat goes influences weather patterns and regional climate," explains ESA.



"As well as absorbing heat, oceans are a natural carbon sink, absorbing a quarter of carbon dioxide emissions from human activity. This has led to the acidification of ocean water, threating marine life."



The amount of heat and carbon dioxide soaked up by the ocean depends on specific variables, including phytoplankton, temperatures, waves, salinity, and ice cover. Satellites can be used to measure these variables from space.



"From their unique vantage point, satellites provide key information for understanding the complexities of our planet and monitoring environmental issues," says ESA.



Video Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Ocean heat influences regional climate

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes the importance of monitoring the shape of the sea surface, which is constantly changing. These observations have many applications, such as ship routing, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-modem-ocean-is-a-tough-place-for-whales-to-survive/">ocean</a> current forecasting, and debris tracking.



"A project supported by the Discovery element of ESA’s Basic Activities recently investigated a new technique to measure sea surface topography very precisely," reports ESA.



"The technique involves looking at satellite navigation (GNSS) signals that have been reflected off of the sea surface at very low angles. At these so-called grazing angles, waves and surface roughness have very little impact on the reflection process; the sea surface acts as a very smooth mirror."



Estel Cardellach is the principal investigator at the Institute for Space Studies of Catalonia, who first submitted the idea for the project.



“In a mirror-like reflection the phase of the signal can be tracked – it is continuous," said Cardellach. "Different surface heights result in different phase measurements. It gives a very precise measurement of the surface altitude at a few centimetres’ precision.”



The researchers developed a GNSS receiver and set up an experiment in the Balaeric Islands to collect signals from the receiver that were reflected off the sea surface. Ultimately, these signals will provide improved measurements of the shape of the sea surface.



Image/ Video Credit: ESA



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Monitoring the dynamic shape of the sea surface

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Aerial,Photo,Of,River,In,Amazon,Rainforest,Jungle,In,Peru

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center</a> describes how scientists are using autonomous sound sensors to monitor deforestation in the Amazon. By recording soundscapes, the experts can determine which animals are present through their distinct sounds.&nbsp;



Using this method, sounds can be used as scientific measurements to analyze the effects of deforestation. The researchers will gain a better understanding of how the acoustics of a forest can be used to measure its health.&nbsp;



"From space, parts of the Amazon rainforest that have previously been logged or burned may look lush and green, like a place buzzing with activity and full of sounds. But inside the rainforest, the animal life may tell a different story, of a harsh environment and a quieter soundscape," says NASA.



Video Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Monitoring deforestation in the Amazon through sounds

[sendtonews key="u0TYxxqfF7-2186404-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from NASA’s...