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Read science articles on the ice age, glaciation and climatology. Discover the connection between ice ages and global warming.
Updated: 1 hour 58 min ago

Making remanufacturing profitable

Mon, 06/10/2024 - 16:10
Returning end-of-life products to as-new condition is called remanufacturing and can be an essential element in a circular economy. But for more industrial companies to take an interest in it, remanufacturing needs to be economically viable.

The solar system may have passed through dense interstellar clouds 2 million years ago, altering Earth's climate

Mon, 06/10/2024 - 13:02
Astrophysicists calculate the likelihood that Earth was exposed to cold, harsh interstellar clouds, a phenomenon not previously considered in geologic climate models.

Frozen? Let it melt with efficient new de-icer friendly to the environment

Fri, 06/07/2024 - 11:14
A research team has found a de-icing mixture with high effectiveness and low environmental impact after using machine learning to analyze ice melting mechanisms of aqueous solutions of 21 salts and 16 organic solvents.

Giant viruses found on Greenland ice sheet

Tue, 06/04/2024 - 17:42
Giant viruses found on the Greenland ice sheet probably regulate the growth of snow algae on the ice by infecting them. Knowing how to control these viruses could help us reduce the rate of ice-melt.

Microscopic defects in ice shape how massive glaciers flow, study shows

Mon, 06/03/2024 - 16:22
A glacier's flow depends on how microscopic defects move through the ice, according to new research that also yielded a new model for predicting how glaciers will flow, ultimately contributing to sea-level rise.

Arctic melting heavily influenced by little-studied meteorological phenomena

Mon, 06/03/2024 - 10:43
A team of scientists has combined paleoclimatic data from the last 2,000 years with powerful computer modeling and in-the-field research on lake sediments and tree rings to show that an understudied phenomenon, known as atmospheric blocking, has long influenced temperature swings in the Arctic. As temperatures warm due to climate change, atmospheric blocking will help drive ever-wilder weather events. The study focused on the Norwegian Arctic archipelago, Svalbard, at the edge of the Arctic Ocean.

Thawing permafrost: Not a climate tipping element, but nevertheless far-reaching impacts

Mon, 06/03/2024 - 10:43
Permafrost soils store large quantities of organic carbon and are often portrayed as a critical tipping element in the Earth system, which, once global warming has reached a certain level, suddenly and globally collapses. Yet this image of a ticking timebomb, one that remains relatively quiet until, at a certain level of warming, it goes off, is a controversial one among the research community. Based on the scientific data currently available, the image is deceptive, as an international team has shown in a recently released study. According to their findings, there is no single global tipping point; rather, there are numerous local and regional ones, which 'tip' at different times, producing cumulative effects and causing the permafrost to thaw in step with climate change.

Crucial shift in River Nile's evolution during ancient Egypt discovered

Mon, 06/03/2024 - 10:43
Researchers have explored how the River Nile evolved over the past 11,500 years and how changes in its geography could have helped shape the fortunes of ancient Egyptian civilization. Research reveals a major shift in the Nile around four thousand years ago, after which the floodplain in the Nile Valley around Luxor greatly expanded.

Historic iceberg surges offer insights on modern climate change

Thu, 05/30/2024 - 17:21
A great armada entered the North Atlantic, launched from the cold shores of North America. But rather than ships off to war, this force was a fleet of icebergs. And the havoc it wrought was to the ocean current itself. The future of the Atlantic circulation will be determined by a tug-o-war between Greenland's decreasing ice flux and its increasing freshwater runoff.

Local bright spot among melting glaciers: 2000 km of Antarctic ice-covered coastline has been stable for 85 years

Thu, 05/30/2024 - 12:26
A whaler's forgotten aerial photos from 1937 have given researchers the most detailed picture of the ice evolution in East Antarctica to date. The results show that the ice has remained stable and even grown slightly over almost a century, though scientists observe early signs of weakening. The research offers new insights that enhance predictions of ice changes and sea level rise.

Future climate impacts put whale diet at risk

Wed, 05/22/2024 - 21:52
A new study predicts future climate change impacts could disrupt the krill-heavy diet that humpback whales in the southern hemisphere consume.

New insights into the degradation dynamics of organic material in the seafloor

Wed, 05/22/2024 - 12:03
Many processes in the deep sea are not yet well understood, and the role of microbial communities in particular is often a big unknown. This includes, for example, how organic material that sinks from the water surface to the ocean floor is metabolised -- an important building block for a better understanding of the global carbon cycle.

'Vigorous melting' at Antarctica's Thwaites 'Doomsday' Glacier

Mon, 05/20/2024 - 14:55
Glaciologists show evidence of warm ocean water intruding kilometers beneath grounded ice at Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica. The findings suggest that existing climate models are underestimating the impact of ocean and ice interactions in future sea level rise projections.

Record low Antarctic sea ice 'extremely unlikely' without climate change

Mon, 05/20/2024 - 11:27
Scientists have found that the record-low levels of sea ice around Antarctica in 2023 were extremely unlikely to happen without the influence of climate change. This low was a one-in-a-2000-year event without climate change and four times more likely under its effects.

GPS stations measure daily ice loss in Greenland

Tue, 05/14/2024 - 13:14
Monitoring the effects of climate change in Greenland has been made much easier with an innovative method.

2023 was the hottest summer in two thousand years

Tue, 05/14/2024 - 13:12
Researchers have found that 2023 was the hottest summer in the Northern Hemisphere in the past two thousand years, almost four degrees warmer than the coldest summer during the same period.

Today's world: Fastest rate of carbon dioxide rise over the last 50,000 years

Mon, 05/13/2024 - 14:05
Today's rate of atmospheric carbon dioxide increase is 10 times faster than at any other point in the past 50,000 years, researchers have found through a detailed chemical analysis of ancient Antarctic ice.

It flickers, then it tips -- study identifies early warning signals for the end of the African humid period

Tue, 05/07/2024 - 14:02
Tipping points in the climate system can be the result of a slow but linear development. However, they can also be accompanied by a 'flickering', with two stable climatic states that alternate before a final transition occurs -- and the climate tips permanently.

Did a magnetic field collapse trigger the emergence of animals?

Fri, 05/03/2024 - 12:53
Researchers uncovered compelling evidence that Earth's magnetic field was in a highly unusual state when the macroscopic animals of the Ediacaran Period -- 635 to 541 million years ago -- diversified and thrived. Their study raises the question of whether these fluctuations in Earth's ancient magnetic field led to shifts in oxygen levels that may have been crucial to the proliferation of life forms millions of years ago.

Ice shelves fracture under weight of meltwater lakes

Fri, 05/03/2024 - 12:53
Heavy pooling meltwater can fracture ice, potentially leading to ice shelf collapse.

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