Science Daily

An analysis of the so called climate spectrum shows why the ice ages have not behaved precisely as the models predict. A large element of coincidence is involved when an ice age begins or ends, the analysis shows. The results imply we should maybe use a more conservative risk assessment then the one IPCC recommends.

Human beings altered one of the highest peaks in the Himalayas hundreds of years before a person ever set foot there, new research has found. The study indicates that the byproducts of burning coal in Europe in the late 18th century made their way to the Dasuopu glacier in the central Himalayas, some 6,400 miles as the crow flies from London, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.

This new work sheds fresh light on the complicated interplay of factors affecting global climate and the carbon cycle -- and on what transpired millions of years ago to spark two of the most devastating extinction events in Earth's history.

About 55 million years ago, a rapidly warming climate decimated marine communities around the world. But according to new research, it was a different story for snails, clams and other mollusks living in the shallow waters along what is now the Gulf Coast of the United States. They were able to survive.

An emerging scientific consensus is that gases -- in particular carbon gases -- released by volcanic eruptions millions of years ago contributed to some of Earth's greatest mass extinctions. But new research suggests that that's not the entire story.

Using 12 years of satellite data, NASA scientists have measured how the influx of cold, fresh water is affecting the Beaufort Gyre, a major Arctic current.

The annals of human history have been recorded through text, art, and oral tradition. However, for hundreds of years tropical forests have also kept detailed records of the human activities that unfolded around them. Researchers now describe how the rings, physical chemistry, and DNA of living tropical trees reveal the impacts of native culture as well as the scars of colonial occupation.

Mud wasp nests collected from Kimberley sites with the permission of traditional owners help scientists establish ancient art rock unique to the area is 12,000 years old not 17,000 years old.

Researchers examined the rainfall history of Central America over the last 11,000 years. The results provide context for the development of tropical rainforest ecosystems in the region, and long-sought answers to what has been controlling rainfall in Central America for several millennia.

A year-round acoustic study of marine mammals in the northern Bering Sea is providing scientists with a valuable snapshot of an Arctic world already under drastic pressure from climate change.

Abrupt thawing of permafrost will double previous estimates of potential carbon emissions from permafrost thaw in the Arctic, and is already rapidly changing the landscape and ecology of the circumpolar north, a new study finds.

The Greenland Ice Sheet is melting faster today than it did only a few years ago. The reason: it's not just melting on the surface -- but underwater, too.

A new study shows that ancient Siberian hunters created heat resistant pots so that they could cook hot meals - surviving the harshest seasons of the ice age by extracting nutritious bone grease and marrow from meat.

Researchers have for the first time found a connection between the immune systems of different bird species, and the various climatic conditions in which they live. The researchers believe that as the climate changes, some birds may be exposed to diseases that they are not equipped to handle.

A team of scientists has observed, for the first time, the presence of warm water at a vital point underneath a glacier in Antarctica -- an alarming discovery that points to the cause behind the gradual melting of this ice shelf while also raising concerns about sea-level rise around the globe.

Tiny meteorites no larger than grains of sand hold new clues about the atmosphere on ancient Earth, according to scientists.

Tidewater glaciers, the massive rivers of ice that end in the ocean, may be melting underwater much faster than previously thought, according to a new study that used robotic kayaks. The findings, which challenge current frameworks for analyzing ocean-glacier interactions, have implications for the rest of the world's tidewater glaciers, whose rapid retreat is contributing to sea-level rise.

New research describes a dynamic climate and vegetation model that explains when regions across Africa, areas of the Middle East, and the Mediterranean were wetter and drier and how the plant composition changed in tandem, possibly providing migration corridors throughout time.

Using the latest satellite technology from the European Space Agency (ESA), scientists have been tracking patterns of mass loss from Pine Island -- Antarctica's largest glacier.

Contrary to long-held beliefs, humans did not make major changes to the landscape prior to European colonization, according to new research. These new insights into the past could help to inform how landscapes are managed in the future.