Science Daily

New research has shed light on a sudden cooling event 34 million years ago, which contributed to formation of the Antarctic ice sheets.

After the natural warming that followed the last Ice Age, there were repeated periods when masses of icebergs broke off from Antarctica into the Southern Ocean. A new data-model study now shows that it took only a decade to initiate this tipping point in the climate system, and that ice mass loss then continued for many centuries.

Researchers have now reconstructed how the Indian summer monsoon responded to meltwater pulses into the North Atlantic at the end of the penultimate cold period.

Climate scientists identify abrupt transitions in climate records that may have been caused by the climate system crossing a tipping point. They devised a statistical method to determine whether these transitions are simply noise or evidence of a more significant change. Their method is less error-prone than previous methods, since it doesn't rely on human determination. It also allows comparing different records consistently and can identify important events that may have been overlooked in older studies.

Volcanic eruptions may have triggered abrupt climate changes contributing to the repeated collapse of Chinese dynasties over the past 2,000 years, according to new research. The study also illustrates how volcanic eruptions can profoundly impact vulnerable or unstable regions and highlights the need to prepare for future eruptions.

Volcanic eruptions contributed to the collapse of dynasties in China in the last 2,000 years by temporarily cooling the climate and affecting agriculture, according to a new study. Large eruptions create a cloud that blocks some sunlight for a year or two. That reduces warming of the land in Asia in the summer and leads to a weaker monsoon and less rainfall, reducing crop harvests.

New research shows that humans had a significant role in the extinction of woolly mammoths in Eurasia, occurring thousands of years later than previously thought. An international team of scientists has revealed a 20,000-year pathway to extinction for the woolly mammoth.

An effort to reconstruct Earth's climate since the last ice age, about 24,000 years ago, highlights the main drivers of climate change and how far out of bounds human activity has pushed the climate system.

A study says the Mid-Pleistocene Transition may have been linked to previous erosion of continental soils that subsequently allowed glaciers to stick to the underlying hard bedrock more efficiently.

Need another reason to cut back on sugary foods and drinks, apart from an expanding waistline? They're not helping the environment, contributing to a higher cropland, water scarcity and ecological footprint, according to a new review.

Researchers have revealed that the year-to-year spring variation in Arctic black carbon aerosol abundance is strongly correlated with biomass burning in the mid-latitudes. Moreover, current models underestimate the contribution of BC from biomass burning by a factor of three.

Europe's past prosperity and failure, driven by climate changes, has been revealed using thousand-year-old pollen, spores and charcoal particles fossilized in glacial ice. This first analysis of microfossils preserved in European glaciers unveils earlier-than-expected evidence of air pollution and the roots of modern invasive species problems.

Is ski tourism on a downward slope or can winter holiday resorts weather the ongoing impact of climate change? Researchers investigated the impacts of melting snow and ice on the future of tourism.

Global warming has caused extreme ice melting events in Greenland to become more frequent and more intense over the past 40 years according to new research, raising sea levels and flood risk worldwide.

Rivers flowing from the Tibetan Plateau and the surrounding high Asian mountains which support one-third of the world's population have experienced rapid increases in annual water and sediment runoff since the 1990s, and the volume of sediment washed downstream could more than double by 2050 under the worst-case scenario, a team of scientists has found.

How are warming temperatures and a loss of sea ice affecting polar bears and their marine mammal prey in the Arctic? A York University-led research team used a novel approach to the question by monitoring what polar bears eat across Nunavut and where they are catching their prey.

Climate 'tipping points' can be better understood and predicted using climate change data taken from the ancient past, new research shows.

Lakes in the Northern Hemisphere are warming six times faster since 1992 than any other time period in the last 100 years, new research has found.

While analyzing some of the world's oldest colored gemstones, researchers discovered carbon residue that was once ancient life, encased in a 2.5 billion-year-old ruby.

Slower ocean circulation as the result of climate change could intensify extreme cold weather in the U.S., according to new research.