Science Daily

Using radar data scientists found evidence of an ice age recorded in the polar deposits of Mars. Ice ages on Mars are driven by processes similar to those responsible for ice ages on Earth, that is, long-term cyclical changes in the planet's orbit and tilt, which affect the amount of solar radiation it receives at each latitude.

A new analysis of global data related to wildfire reveals major misconceptions about wildfire and its social and economic impacts. Researchers carried out detailed analysis of global and regional data on fire occurrence, severity and its impacts on society. They found that global area burned has seen an overall slight decline over past decades, despite some notable regional increases.

The history of Greenland's snowfall is chronicled in an unlikely place: the remains of aquatic plants that died long ago, collecting at the bottom of lakes in horizontal layers that document the passing years. Using this ancient record, scientists have determined that snowfall at one key location in western Greenland may have intensified from 6,000 to 4,000 years ago, a period when the planet's Northern Hemisphere was warmer than it is today.

North America experienced regular fires for thousands of years before the arrival of humans in North America according to new research.

Water management in reservoirs could substantially mitigate future summer water shortages, expected as a consequence of ongoing glacier retreat, researchers report. The team simulated the effect of climatic change on glaciers across the European Alps and estimated that two thirds of the effect on seasonal water availability could be avoided when storing water in areas becoming ice free.

Heavier snow over Antarctica was supposed to be one of the few brakes on sea-level rise in a warming world. But that prediction is not reliable, says a new study of Antarctic snowfall over the past 31,000 years.

Researchers have taken an important step forward in mimicking nature's prowess at protecting cells from deep-freeze conditions.

Current rates of climate change could trigger instability in a major Antarctic glacier, ultimately leading to more than 2m of sea-level rise.

The Earth's albedo is a fundamental atmospheric parameter having deep implications for temperature and climate change. Experiments have been performed to monitor it over the past two decades to reveal how it evolves. One of these has brought up to date the observations made since 2007 and gives a new systematic record of the Earth's albedo covering the period between 1998-2014.

Over the past half-million years, the equatorial Pacific Ocean has seen five spikes in the amount of iron-laden dust blown in from the continents. In theory, those bursts should have turbo-charged the growth of the ocean's carbon-capturing algae -- algae need iron to grow -- but a new study shows that the excess iron had little to no effect.

An international team of researchers has gained new insights into the carbon dioxide exchange between ocean and atmosphere, thus making a significant contribution to solving one of the great scientific mysteries of the ice ages.

Methane was seeping from the seafloor for thousands of years following the retreat of the Barents Sea ice sheet, shows a groundbreaking new study.

Neanderthals in Europe showed signs of nutritional stress during periods of extreme cold, suggesting climate change may have contributed to their demise around 40,000 years ago.

The last Ice Age made much of the globe uninhabitable, but there were oases -- or refugia -- where people 20,000 years ago were able to cluster and survive.  Researchers who specialize in the analysis of human DNA have found new evidence that there was one or more of these shelters in what is now Southern Arabia. 

Climate change is melting glaciers, reducing sea-ice cover and increasing wildlife activity -- with some of the most dramatic impacts occurring in the northern high latitudes. New research projects an increased probability of fires occurring in Alaskan boreal forest and tundra under a warmer, drier climate.

Earth system scientists have taken water samples from the north Pacific, north and south Atlantic, and Arctic oceans in search of repositories of black carbon, soot from burning biomass and diesel engines, among other sources. They’ve found considerably less of the material than expected, and they’ve discovered that it exists in at least two varieties, a younger pool closer to the ocean’s surface that is absorbed into the environment in a roughly 100-year cycle and an ancient reserve that remains stable for millennia.

A unique series of measurements taken over several years in the Antarctic Ocean provide new findings about the daily vertical migration of zooplankton communities: scientists of the observed changes during the year and between years.

Researchers have compiled the first global set of observations of flow within the Earth's mantle -- the layer between the crust and the core -- and found that it is moving much faster than has been predicted.

The Antarctic ice sheet, with a thickness of up to 4800 meter, has lost mass in the recent years. This was confirmed by a variety of scientific studies. Scientists now visualize the ice-mass loss: The interested public and scientific community can follow the Antarctic ice-mass changes month by month and divided by regions.

Researchers have developed a new technique to monitor the seasonal changes in Greenland's ice sheet, using seismic vibrations generated by crashing ocean waves. The results may help scientists pinpoint regions of the ice sheet that are most vulnerable to melting. The technique may also set better constraints on how the world's ice sheets contribute to global sea-level changes.