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Researchers have identified a 'tipping point' about 2.7 million years ago when global climate conditions switched from being relatively warm and stable to cold and chaotic, as continental ice sheets expanded in the northern hemisphere. Following this transition, Earth's climate began swinging back and forth between warm interglacial periods and frigid ice ages, linked to slow, cyclic changes in Earth's orbit.

New research may have solved an American mystery which has baffled geologists for a century and a half: how did a river carve a path through a mountain in one of the country's most iconic landscapes? Scientists have long sought an answer to the question of how the Green River, the largest tributary of the Colorado River, managed to create a 700-metre-deep canyon through Utah's 4km-high Uinta Mountains instead of simply flowing around them.

Air-polluting microplastics have been found in rural areas in greater quantities than in cities, researchers say. The study, led by the University of Leeds, detected up to 500 microscopic particles of plastic per square metre per day in an area of woodland during the three-month study - almost twice as much as in a sample collected in a city centre.

The natural sands of beaches along the Firth of Forth are being mixed with significant amounts of human-made materials like bricks, concrete, glass and industrial waste, new research has revealed. A detailed survey of six beaches led by a team from the University of Glasgow has found that these mineral-based materials, known as anthropogenic geomaterials, now make up far more of the beach surface than previously realised.

The urgency of the climate crisis demands rapid innovation. Manchester researchers are using AI to assess climate remediation techniques, generating evidence faster to accelerate the development of promising technologies. Can we find ways to lock away carbon at the scale needed to fight climate change? There are lots of promising ideas which can make significant impacts at scale, such as ocean fertilisation, ocean alkalinity enhancement, enhanced rock weathering with croplands - but field trials at scale are slow, expensive and come with potential environmental risks.

Sophisticated new chemical analysis of gases trapped in rocks for millions of years has cast new light on the origin of the gold deposits beneath Scotland and Ireland. The finding, made by team of scientists led by Professor Fin Stuart from the University of Glasgow, could help pinpoint the location of buried deposits of the treasured metal in the future.

Strongest evidence yet for an atmosphere on a rocky planet outside our solar system - a thick blanket of gases above an ocean of magma. Researchers using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have detected the strongest evidence yet for an atmosphere on a rocky planet outside our solar system. Observations of the ultra-hot super-Earth TOI-561 b suggest the exoplanet is surrounded by a thick blanket of gases above a global magma ocean.

A mysterious swarm of earthquakes that occurred near the Greek island of Santorini in early 2025 was caused by rebounding sheets of magma slicing through Earth's crust, finds a new study by an international team including a UCL researcher. Between late January and early March, the team analysed over 25,000 earthquakes that occurred between Santorini and Amorgos Islands.

An international research collaboration has harnessed supercomputing power to better understand how massive slabs of ancient ocean floors are shaped as they sink hundreds of kilometres below the Earth's surface. Sophisticated computer models developed by researchers in the UK, Switzerland and the USA has cast new light on the complex physical interactions which govern the sliding and sinking of the ancient ocean floor also referred to as subducted slabs through the Earth's mantle, a process known as subduction.

The interior of the mysterious far side of the moon may be colder than the side constantly facing Earth, suggests a new analysis of rock samples co-led by a UCL and Peking University researcher. The study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience , looked at fragments of rock and soil scooped up by China's Chang'e 6 spacecraft last year from a vast crater on the far side of the moon.

Using a decade of satellite data, researchers have identified 85 previously unknown lakes several kilometres under the frozen surface surrounding the South Pole. Hidden beneath the biggest ice mass on Earth, hundreds of subglacial lakes form a crucial part of Antarctica's icy structure, affecting the movement and stability of glaciers, and consequentially influencing global sea level rise.

A new study suggests a habitable past and signs of ancient microbial processes on Mars - and Imperial scientists provided crucial context. Led by NASA and featuring key analysis from Imperial College London, the work has uncovered a range of minerals and organic matter in Martian rocks that point to an ancient history of habitable conditions and potential biological processes on the Red Planet.

New research by Imperial and NASA reveals the Red Planet's mantle preserves a record of its violent beginnings. The inside of Mars isn't smooth and uniform like familiar textbook illustrations. Instead, new research reveals it's chunky - more like a Rocky Road brownie than a neat slice of Millionaire's Shortbread.

New analyses of the samples taken from asteroid Bennu by NASA's OSIRIS-REx have revealed new insights into its origin - and The University of Manchester's scientists have played a key role. A series of three new papers published this week in Nature Astronomy Nature Geoscience , reveal that Bennu is a mix of dust formed in our solar system, organic matter from interstellar space and stardust that predates the solar system itself.

Scientists have discovered hundreds of giant sand bodies beneath the North Sea that appear to defy fundamental geological principles and could have important implications for energy and carbon storage. Using high-resolution 3D seismic (sound wave) imaging, combined with data and rock samples from hundreds of wells, researchers The University of Manchester in collaboration with industry, identified vast mounds of sand - some several kilometres wide - that appear to have sunk downward, displacing older, lighter and softer materials from beneath them.

Scientists have used clues locked into tree rings to reveal major changes in the Amazon's rainfall cycle over the last 40 years which show that wet seasons are getting wetter and dry seasons drier. Oxygen isotope signals in rings from two Amazon tree species allowed the international research team led by the University of Leeds to reconstruct seasonal changes in rainfall for the recent past.

New research has revealed that construction activity is now a dominant source of black carbon emissions in central London.

Scientists have uncovered new evidence to suggest that Earth is leaking gases from deep inside its mantle - even in regions without any volcanic activity. Led by researchers at The University of Manchester, the study reveals that invisible, odourless gases like helium and argon are slowly seeping hundreds of kilometres up through Earth's crust, reaching underground water supplies thousands of meters beneath our feet.

Researchers have used cutting-edge satellite technology to shed light on the global mystery of the unexplained seismic signals that "shook the Earth" for nine days. In September 2023, scientists observed a bizarre series of global seismic signals, which appeared every 90 seconds over nine days - and then repeated a month later.

Sophisticated chemical analysis of volcanic gases from Kenya have provided the first evidence that a vast mass of deep Earth material lies beneath East Africa. An international team of scientists led by Professor Fin Stuart from the University of Glasgow, working in partnership with the Kenya Geothermal Development Company, has discovered surprising results in a new study of gases from the Menengai geothermal field in central Kenya.