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Snow over Antarctica buffered sea level rise during last century
An increase in snowfall accumulation over Antarctica during the 20th century mitigated sea level rise by 0.4 inches. However, Antarctica's additional ice mass gained from snowfall makes up for just about a third of its current ice loss.
Oldest known plant virus found at ancient settlement
Researchers studying ancient corncobs found at a Native American archeological site have recovered a 1,000-year-old virus, the oldest plant virus ever reported.
Warming, sea-ice loss: Arctic Report Card tracks region's environmental changes
NOAA's annual report card on the Arctic, released today, shows that the Arctic region experienced the second-warmest air temperatures ever recorded; the second-lowest overall sea-ice coverage; lowest recorded winter ice in the Bering Sea; and earlier plankton blooms due to early melting of sea ice in the Bering Sea.
ICESat-2 reveals profile of ice sheets, sea ice, forests
With each pass of the ICESat-2 satellite, the mission is adding to datasets tracking Earth's rapidly changing ice.
Humans may be reversing the climate clock, by 50 million years
Our future on Earth may also be our past. Researchers show that humans are reversing a long-term cooling trend tracing back at least 50 million years. And it's taken just two centuries.
Ozone depletion increases Antarctic snowfall, partially mitigates ice sheet loss
Ozone layer depletion has increased snowfall over Antarctica in recent decades, partially mitigating the ongoing loss of the continent's ice sheet mass, new research finds.
How ice particles promote the formation of radicals
The production of chlorofluorocarbons, which damage the ozone layer, has been banned as far as possible. However, other substances can also tear holes in the ozone layer in combination with ice particles, such as those found in clouds. Researchers have discovered a possible mechanism for this.
Wintertime arctic sea ice growth slows long-term decline
New research has found that increases in the rate at which Arctic sea ice grows in the winter may have partially slowed down the decline of the Arctic sea ice cover.
Greenland ice sheet melt 'off the charts' compared with past four centuries
Surface melting across Greenland's mile-thick ice sheet began increasing in the mid-19th century and then ramped up dramatically during the 20th and early 21st centuries, showing no signs of abating, according to new research.
Uneven rates of sea level rise tied to climate change
The pattern of uneven sea level rise over the last quarter century has been driven in part by human-caused climate change, not just natural variability, according to a new study.
Scientists reveal substantial water loss in global landlocked regions
A new study reveals that water storage declines in global landlocked basins has aggravated local water stress and caused potential sea level rise.
Quirky glacial behavior explained
In August 2012, the Jakobshavn Glacier was flowing and breaking off into the sea at record speeds, three times faster than in previous years. As the glacier flowed faster, it became thinner and more unstable and in a twist, a pileup of thick ice replenished the glacier's terminus, slowing it down again. New work explaining the fast-then-slow movement of Jakobshavn may help scientists better predict how tidewater glaciers contribute to sea level rise.
Whale songs' changing pitch may be response to population, climate changes
Blue whales have been dropping pitch incrementally over several decades, but the cause has remained a mystery. A new study finds a seasonal variation in the whales' pitch correlated with breaking sea ice in the southern Indian Ocean. The new research also extends the mysterious long-term falling pitch to related baleen whales and rules out noise pollution as the cause of the global long-term trend, according to the study's authors.
Cod: Loss of breeding grounds in warmer world
The chances of survival for the offspring of important fish species will dramatically worsen, if the 1.5 ° C target of the Paris Climate Agreement is not achieved.
Earth's polar regions communicate via oceanic 'postcards,' atmospheric 'text messages'
Scientists have documented a two-part climatic connection between the North Atlantic Ocean and Antarctica, a fast atmospheric channel and a much slower oceanic one, that caused rapid changes in climate during the last ice age -- and may again.
How the Atlantic Ocean became part of the global circulation at a climatic tipping point
Scientists have discovered that the exchange of water between the North and South Atlantic became significantly larger fifty-nine million years ago.
A large volcanic eruption shook Deception Island 3,980 years ago
A large volcanic eruption shook Deception Island, in Antarctica, 3,980 years ago, and not 8,300, as it was previously thought. This event was the largest eruption in the austral continent during the Holocene, and it was comparable in volume of ejected rock to the Tambora volcano eruption in 1815.
New federal climate assessment for U.S. released
A new federal report finds that climate change is affecting the natural environment, agriculture, energy production and use, land and water resources, transportation, and human health and welfare across the U.S. and its territories.
Is Antarctica becoming more like Greenland?
Antarctica is high and dry and mostly bitterly cold, and it's easy to think of its ice and snow as locked away in a freezer, protected from melt except around its low-lying coasts and floating ice shelves. But that view may be wrong.
Volcanoes and glaciers combine as powerful methane producers
Large amounts of the potent greenhouse gas methane are being released from an Icelandic glacier, scientists have discovered. A study of Sólheimajökull glacier, which flows from the active, ice-covered volcano Katla, shows that up to 41 tons of methane is being released through meltwaters every day during the summer months.
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