A reduction in the amount of fresh, light-colored snow in parts of Greenland is exposing older, darker snow. The research reports on new weather patterns and explains how the changing shape of snowflakes on the surface is leading to conditions on Greenland s ice sheet, including possibly increased melting.
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IMAGE: The NTU Asian School of the Environment team behind the study of ancient corals in Indonesia include (L-R): Associate Professor Emma Hill, PhD student Rishav Mallick and Assistant Professor Aron. view more
Credit: NTU Singapore
A slow-motion earthquake lasting 32 years - the slowest ever recorded - eventually led to the catastrophic 1861 Sumatra earthquake, researchers at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have found.
The NTU research team says their study highlights potential missing factors or mismodelling in global earthquake risk assessments today. Slow motion earthquakes or slow slip events refer to a type of long, drawn-out stress release phenomenon in which the Earth s tectonic plates slide against one another without causing major ground shaking or destruction. They typically involve movements of between a few cm/year to cm/day.
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IMAGE: Fibre-optic cable (red) installed in 1 km deep borehole drilled on Store Glacier in Greenland view more
Credit: Poul Christoffersen and RESPONDER team
Scientists have used fibre-optic sensing 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.
The research team, led by the University of Cambridge, used a new technique in which laser pulses are transmitted in a fibre-optic cable to obtain highly detailed temperature measurements from the surface of the ice sheet all the way to the base, more than 1000 metres below.
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IMAGE: A male orangutan eating non-fruit vegetation instead of the fruit orangutans prefer on the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. view more
Credit: Kristana Parinters Makur/Tuanan Orangutan Research Project
Wild orangutans are known for their ability to survive food shortages, but scientists have made a surprising finding that highlights the need to protect the habitat of these critically endangered primates, which face rapid habitat destruction and threats linked to climate change.
Scientists found that the muscle mass of orangutans on the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia was significantly lower when less fruit was available. That s remarkable because orangutans are thought to be especially good at storing and using fat for energy, according a Rutgers-led study in the journal
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IMAGE: The Eder dam (Germany) in the year 2019. Areas of water that are drying out release considerably more carbon than areas covered by water. view more
Credit: Maik Dobbermann
Among other things, dams serve as reservoirs for drinking water, agricultural irrigation, or the operation of hydropower plants. Until now, it had been assumed that dams act as net carbon stores. Researchers from the Helmholtz Centre of Environmental Research (UFZ) together with Spanish scientists from the Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA) in Girona and the University of Barcelona showed that dams release twice as much carbon as they store. The study has been published in