A new study suggests that the Gulf Stream – an Atlantic Ocean current that plays a large role in shaping Earth’s weather patterns – is weaker now than at any point in the last 1,000 years. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/gulf-stream-atlantic-weakest-in-over-1000-years…
Tag: greenland
Greenland is careening toward a critical tipping point for ice loss
The Greenland Ice Sheet is one of the largest ice sheets in the world. But it might not be for much longer, if Earth continues to warm. Source: https://www.livescience.com/greenland-ice-loss-threshold-2055.html
Mystery of Greenland’s expanding ‘dark zone’ finally solved
Scientists have discovered what causes the algal blooms that are responsible for the “dark zone” in Greenland’s melting ice sheet. Source: https://www.livescience.com/greenland-dark-zone-mystery-solved.html
Our world is losing ice at a record rate
The rate at which ice is disappearing across the planet has been speeding up, with 65% since the 1990s, a survey of global ice loss using European Space Agency satellite data reveals. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/esa-satellites-show-record-rate-ice-loss…
Earth’s outer shell ballooned during massive growth spurt 3 billion years ago
Zircon crystals found in stream sediments in Greenland have revealed how the Earth’s crust rapidly grew during peak mantle activity. Source: https://www.livescience.com/earths-crust-growth-spurt.html
Megalodon shark’s enormous babies ate their siblings in the womb
Megalodons – the extinct giant sharks that lived in most of Earth’s oceans about 3 million years ago – gave birth to babies that were larger than adult humans, scientists say. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/megalodon-extinct-giant-shark-enormous-babies…
The myths behind the southern and northern lights
For millennia, humans have viewed the northern and southern lights – aurora borealis and aurora australis – and created myths and folklore to explain the dancing lights they saw in the sky. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/legends-folklore-myths-northern-southern-lights-auroras…
2020 Arctic Report Card: Sea ice loss, extreme wildfires
NOAA’s 2020 Arctic Report Card describes a region that is warming even more rapidly than scientists expected. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/arctic-report-card-2020-sea-ice-loss-extreme-wildfires…
Want to find life on Mars? Look deep underground
A new study from researchers at Rutgers University suggests that the best place to look for evidence of life on Mars is deep underground, where geothermal heat melted subsurface ice. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/mars-life-search-subsurface-ice-melted-by-geothermal-heat…
Mysterious black spot in polar explorer’s diary offers gruesome clue to his fate
In 1907, explorer Jørgen Brønlund died during an expedition in Greenland. Scientists recently gleaned new details about Brønlund’s death from a mark in his diary. Source: https://www.livescience.com/greenland-explorer-diary-black-spot.html