news 2017

Tough species of corals can go mobile and lay the foundations for new reefs in otherwise inhospitable areas, a study shows. Scientists have discovered that the rolling and resilient corals can act as a base upon which other corals attach and build reefs by creating their own stable habitats. The finding sheds new light on the mobile corals - called coralliths - which grow on pebbles or fragments of dead reefs, and can survive being buffeted by waves and ocean currents.

The recent intense hurricanes in the Atlantic have sharply focused attention on how climate change can exacerbate extreme weather events. Scientific research suggests that global warming causes heavier rainfall because a hotter atmosphere can hold more moisture and warmer oceans evaporate faster feeding the atmosphere with more moisture.

Titan, the largest of Saturn's more than 60 moons, has surprisingly intense rainstorms, according to research by a team of UCLA planetary scientists and geologists. Although the storms are relatively rare — they occur less than once per Titan year, which is 29 and a half Earth years — they occur much more frequently than the scientists expected.

Methane is the second most powerful greenhouse gas and concentrations are rising in the atmosphere. Because of its potency and quick decay in the atmosphere, countries have recognised that reduction of methane emissions are a means toward mitigating global warming. In light of the new international climate agreement, the Paris Agreement, there is increasing need for countries to accurately quantify their greenhouse gas emissions and to have independent checks on this reporting.

Scientists from the University of Bristol have conducted experiments to accelerate degradation in keratinous tissues such as feathers, scales and hair in order to simulate the processes that occur over deep time as something becomes a fossil. Their findings demonstrate that previous claims showing the preservation of keratin protein in dinosaur fossils are likely to be false.

ETH researchers show that magma chambers under supervolcanoes are more like soggy sponges than reservoirs of molten rock.

New research shows underwater rivers are more powerful and long-lasting than first thought (5 October 2017) A team of scientists, including experts from Durham University, has discovered that sediment avalanches occurring deep under the ocean are far more frequent and long-lasting than previously thought.

Researchers at Umeå University in Sweden are exploring the potential to create a landscape level map of the shapes of lake basins through a laser survey. This is a critical missing piece of the puzzle for understanding the role of lake carbon cycling at large spatial scales. The study is a part of an ongoing project aiming to establish a reference area in Sweden for detailed studies that can link the understanding at ecosystem level to landscape scale as well as assess the feedback of aquatic carbon cycling to climate change.

Analysis of Martian meteorites has uncovered 90 million years' worth of new information about one of the red planet's volcanoes - and helped pinpoint which volcano the meteorites came from. Geologists based in the UK and the USA have used advanced mass spectrometry techniques to learn more about the origins of six meteorites known as 'nakhlites' - pieces of Martian terrain which were blasted from the face of the red planet by an impact event 11 million years ago, then drifted through space before landing on Earth.

Earthquakes brought on by human activities, such as mining, building dams and fracking, are becoming more frequent and require evidence-based management, new research suggests. In a study led by Professor Gillian Foulger of the Department of Earth Sciences , and published in the journal Earth Science Reviews , researchers compiled a comprehensive record of over 700 earthquakes claimed to have been caused by human activity over the last 150 years.

No one can travel inside the earth to study what happens there. So scientists must do their best to replicate real-world conditions inside the lab. "We are interested in large-scale geophysical processes, like how plate tectonics initiates and how plates move underneath one another in subduction zones," said David Goldsby , an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

Researchers have warned of an 'urgent worldwide need' to address a broad spectrum of cascading impacts of glacier mass loss on downstream systems. In their paper, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the authors synthesised currently available evidence and documented the profound impact on freshwater and near-shore marine systems.

Based on observations of newly-forming stars, scientists know that the solar system began as a disc of dust and gas surrounding the centrally-growing sun. The gas condensed to solids which accumulated into larger rocky bodies like asteroids and mini-planets. Over a period of 100 million years these mini-planets collided with one another and gradually accumulated into the planets we see today, including the Earth.

Increasing seismic activity suggests that eruption of Bali's Mount Agung volcano may be imminent, according to a University of Queensland volcanologist. UQ School of Earth and Environmental Sciences researcher Dr Teresa Ubide said seismic monitoring at the volcano, which is the highest point on Bali, shows an increasing frequency of tremors, suggesting evidence of hot magma coming to the surface.

While previous studies had argued that Earth's crust 3.5 billion years ago looked like these Hawaiian lavas, a new study led by UChicago scientists suggests by then much of it had already been transformed into lighter-colored felsic rock by plate tectonics. The Earth's history is written in its elements, but as the tectonic plates slip and slide over and under each other over time, they muddy that evidence-and with it the secrets of why Earth can sustain life.

The two year project looks to improve forecast predictions that would look three to four weeks out, considered the "new frontier" in forecasting. Predicting the weather three to four weeks in advance is extremely challenging, yet many critical decisions affecting communities and economies must be made that far in advance.

It lived well over 550 million years ago, is known only through fossils and has variously been described as looking a bit like a jellyfish, a worm, a fungus and lichen. But was the 'mysterious' Dickinsonia an animal, or was it something else? Recent findings suggest animals had evolved several million years before the 'Cambrian Explosion' that has been the focus of attention for studies into animal evolution for so long.

It lived well over 550 million years ago, is known only through fossils and has variously been described as looking a bit like a jellyfish, a worm, a fungus and lichen. But was the 'mysterious' Dickinsonia an animal, or was it something else? A new study by researchers at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol, and the British Geological Survey provides strong proof that Dickinsonia was an animal, confirming recent findings suggesting that animals evolved millions of years before the so-called Cambrian Explosion of animal life.

Experiments carried out at Oxford University have revealed that tectonic plates are weaker than previously thought. The finding explains an ambiguity in lab work that led scientists to believe these rocks were much stronger than they appeared to be in the natural world. This new knowledge will help us understand how tectonic plates can break to form new boundaries.