Science Daily

The Bardarbunga eruption on Iceland has broken many records. The event in 2014 was the strongest in Europe since more than 240 years. The hole it left behind is the biggest caldera formation ever observed.

Environmental records obtained from archaeological sites in South Africa's southern Cape suggest climate may not have been directly linked to cultural and technological innovations of Middle Stone Age humans in southern Africa after all.

Algae that live in and under the sea ice play a much greater role for the Arctic food web than previously assumed. In a new study, biologists show that not only animals that live directly under the ice thrive on carbon produced by so-called ice algae.

Scientists have found that changes in cloud patterns during the last three decades match those predicted by climate model simulations. These cloud changes are likely to have had a warming effect on the planet.

The phrase "tipping point" passed its own tipping point and caught fire after author Malcolm Gladwell's so-named 2000 book. It's now frequently used in discussions about climate change, but what are "climate tipping points"? And what do they mean for society and the economy? Scientists tackle the terminology and outline a strategy for investigating the consequences of climate tipping points in a new study.

Scientists have long suggested that global warming could lead to a slowdown -- or even shutdown -- of the vast system of ocean currents, including the Gulf Stream, that keeps Europe warm. However, a new study finds that, rather than cooling Europe, a slowdown of the Thermohaline Circulation would mean the continent still warms, but less quickly than other parts of the world.

A new reconstruction of Antarctic ocean temperatures around the time the dinosaurs disappeared 66 million years ago supports the idea that one of the planet's biggest mass extinctions was due to the combined effects of volcanic eruptions and an asteroid impact.

The recent trend of increasing Antarctic sea ice extent -- seemingly at odds with climate model projections -- can largely be explained by a natural climate fluctuation, according to a new study.

There was a period during the last ice age when temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere went on a rollercoaster ride, plummeting and then rising again every 1,500 years or so. Those abrupt climate changes wreaked havoc on ecosystems, but their cause has been something of a mystery. New evidence shows for the first time that the ocean's overturning circulation slowed during every one of those temperature plunges -- at times almost stopping.

Scientists found that melt on the surface of glaciers in the McMurdo Dry Valley is rare, but internal melting is extensive.

Antarctic sea ice production spanning more than 20 years has been understood through the analysis of satellite observations using specially developed techniques. The results of this analysis revealed that changes to the sea ice production in the Southern Ocean were caused mainly because of surrounding ice shelf and fast ice conditions, rather than by wind, temperature, or other factors.

Approximately 30 percent of current Adélie penguin colonies may be in decline by 2060, researchers predict, and approximately 60 percent may be in decline by 2099. The declines are associated with warming -- many regions of Antarctica have warmed too much and further warming is no longer positive for the species.

Species across the world are rapidly going extinct due to human activities, but humans are also causing rapid evolution and the emergence of new species. A new study summarizes the causes of humanmade speciation, and discusses why newly evolved species cannot simply replace extinct wild species.

Adaptation to climate change has a lag of several thousands of years, report researchers. The permafrost regions in the Arctic are among those areas of the world in which the temperature is rising particularly fast due to climate change. However, biologists are currently observing that the tree vegetation is only minimally adapting to these changes. In those areas where pine and spruce trees should be growing according to the air temperature, the Siberian larch is still thriving.

Antarctic sea ice is constantly on the move as powerful winds blow it away from the coast and out toward the open ocean. A new study shows how that ice migration may be more important for the global ocean circulation than anyone realized.

Planetary scientists have discovered pieces of opal in a meteorite found in Antarctica, a result that demonstrates that meteorites delivered water ice to asteroids early in the history of the solar system.

The way the ocean transported heat, nutrients and carbon dioxide at the peak of the last ice age, about 20,000 years ago, is significantly different than what has previously been suggested, according to two new studies. The findings suggest that the colder ocean circulated at a very slow rate, which enabled it to store much more carbon for much longer than the modern ocean.

Earth's ancient magnetic field was significantly different than the present day field, originating from several poles rather than the familiar two, new research suggests. Then, shortly after our planet's core solidified, this work predicts that Earth's magnetic field transitioned to a 'strong,' two-pole one.

Researchers have long struggled to explain why some violent crime rates are higher near the equator than other parts of the world. Now, a team of researchers has developed a model that could help explain why.

The Siberian permafrost regions include those areas of the Earth, which heat up very quickly in the course of climate change. Nevertheless, biologists are currently observing only a minimal response in forest composition.