news 2021

A team of volcanologists who observed the colossal 2018 eruption of Kilauea, Hawai'i, have tracked how potentially toxic metals carried in its gas plumes were transported away from the volcano to be deposited on the landscape.

New research shows concentrations of the toxic element mercury in rivers and fjords connected to the Greenland Ice Sheet are comparable to rivers in industrial China, an unexpected finding raising questions about the effects of glacial melting in an area that is a major exporter of seafood. "There are surprisingly high levels of mercury in the glacier meltwaters we sampled in southwest Greenland," said lead author Jon Hawkings, a postdoctoral fellow at Florida State University and the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences.

Scientists have used a fibre-optic sensor passed deep into a borehole to obtain the most detailed measurements of ice properties ever taken on the Greenland Ice Sheet. Their findings will be used to make more accurate models of the future movement of the world’s second-largest ice sheet, as the effects of climate change continue to accelerate.

A length of steel pipe and a heart monitor are the unlikely tools underpinning new research which suggests that trees may work together to form resource-sharing networks, helping the group collectively overcome environmental challenges. The findings, laid out in a paper published today in Communications Biology, offer fresh insight into how forests around the world might adapt to the increasing environmental stresses of climate change.

The biographies of eight crew found among the remains of the Tudor warship Mary Rose have been revealed using the latest archaeological methods. Cardiff University academics, in partnership with the Mary Rose Trust and the British Geological Survey, used cutting edge scientific techniques to reveal the ancestry, childhood origins and diets of some of the crew who perished on the ship in 1545 AD.

A new method to trigger rain where water is scarce is being tested in the UAE using drones that were designed and manufactured at the University of Bath. The new method to trigger rain in places where water is scarce is being tested in the United Arab Emirates using unmanned drones that were designed and manufactured at the University of Bath.

Researchers from the University of Glasgow have contributed their expertise to a new report on how nature-based solutions could help nations mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change. Professor Nick Hanley and Professor Larissa Naylor are among the authors of Nature-based Solutions for Climate Change, People and Biodiversity , a briefing paper released Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health & Comparative Medicine by the COP26 Universities Network.

Volcanic eruptions deep in our oceans are capable of extremely powerful releases of energy, at a rate high enough to power the whole of the United States, according to research published today. Eruptions from deep-sea volcanoes were long-thought to be relatively uninteresting compared with those on land.

Researchers have uncovered evidence suggesting that volcanic carbon emissions were not a major driver in Earth's most recent extinction event. Even though volcanic carbon emissions alone couldn't have triggered the mass extinction, our data highlights their influence on our planet's climate and habitability Sally Gibson Earth has experienced five major extinction events over the last 500 million years, the fifth and most recent responsible for wiping out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.

A new type of rock created during large and exceptionally hot volcanic eruptions has been discovered beneath the Pacific Ocean. An international team of researchers including from the University of Leeds unearthed the previously unknown form of basalt after drilling through the Pacific Ocean floor. The discovery suggests that ocean floor eruptions sourced in the Earth’s mantle were even hotter and more voluminous than previously thought.

Eroded seabed rocks are providing an essential source of nutrition for drifting marine organisms at the base of the food chain, according to new research. The findings, led by the University, show that iron – an essential nutrient for microscopic marine algae known as phytoplankton – is being released from sediments on the deep ocean floor.

Melting glaciers could be triggering a 'feedback process' that causes further climate change, according to new research. An international research team led by the University has for the first time linked glacier-fed mountain rivers with higher rates of plant material decomposition, a major process in the global carbon cycle.

Lightning strikes were just as important as meteorites in creating the perfect conditions for life to emerge on Earth, geologists say. Minerals delivered to Earth in meteorites more than 4 billion years ago have long been advocated as key ingredients for the development of life on our planet. Scientists believed minimal amounts of these minerals were also brought to early Earth through billions of lightning strikes.

New research led by the University of Cambridge has found rare evidence - preserved in the chemistry of ancient rocks from Greenland - which tells of a time when Earth was almost entirely molten. It's astonishing that we can even hold these rocks in our hands - let alone get so much detail about the early history of our planet Helen Williams The study, published in the journal Science Advances , yields information on an important period in our planet's formation, when a deep sea of incandescent magma stretched across Earth's surface and extended hundreds of kilometres into its interior.

For the first time, scientists using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have found evidence of volcanic activity reforming the atmosphere on a rocky planet around a distant star. The planet, GJ 1132 b, has a similar density, size, and age to Earth. It is a window onto the geology of another world Paul Rimmer The planet GJ 1132 b appears to have begun life as a gaseous world with a thick blanket of atmosphere.

University of Glasgow researchers have played a key role in the first successful recovery of a meteorite on UK soil in nearly three decades. Dr Luke Daly, from the School of Geographical and Earth Sciences, was part of the international collaboration which tracked the entry of a fireball over Britain on Sunday 28 February.

A new study involving researchers from UCL has found consistent evidence of a decline in ocean currents, with the Gulf Stream System, also known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), at its weakest in over 1,000 years. Published today in Nature Geoscience, the team found that the Gulf Stream's slowdown in the 20th century is unprecedented and is likely linked to human-induced climate change.

Reserves of groundwater in much of the populated parts of Africa are being replenished at rates that could help to protect communities against the damaging effects of climate change, finds a new study co-authored by UCL. Published in the journal Environmental Research Letters , the study has revealed that the long-term groundwater recharge (the rate at which groundwater is replenished) in Africa is approximately 15,000 cubic km per decade - enough to sustain widespread groundwater pumping for drinking water and irrigatation for farming.

Professor Mike Parker Pearson (UCL Institute of Archaeology) discusses his research which has found a dismantled stone circle in west Wales which was moved to Salisbury Plain and rebuilt as Stonehenge. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose History of the Kings of Britain was written in 1136, the mysterious monoliths at Stonehenge were first spirited there by the wizard Merlin, whose army stole them from a mythical Irish stone circle called the Giants' Dance.

Global emissions of a potent substance notorious for depleting the Earth's ozone layer - the protective barrier which absorbs the Sun's harmful UV rays - have fallen rapidly and are now back on the decline, according to new research. Two international studies show emissions of CFC-11, one of the many chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) chemicals once widely used in refrigerators and insulating foams, are back on the decline less than two years after the exposure of their shock resurgence in the wake of suspected rogue production.