It is increasingly clear that the prolonged drought conditions, record-breaking heat, sustained wildfires, and frequent, more extreme storms experienced in recent years are a direct result of rising global temperatures brought on by humans’ addition of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. And a new MIT study on extreme climate events in Earth’s ancient history suggests […]
Jennifer Chu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Posted inRegional
Study: Parts of the Sierra Nevada formed in a “geologic instant,” more than twice as fast as previously thought
October 12, 2020 – Although we can’t see it in action, the Earth is constantly churning out new land. This takes place at subduction zones, where tectonic plates crush against each other and in the process plow up chains of volcanos that magma can rise through. Some of this magma does not spew out, but […]
Posted inSci/Tech
Brewing up Earth’s earliest life
Researchers have found that a class of molecules called sulfidic anions may have been abundant in Earth’s lakes and rivers. April 9, 2018 – Around 4 billion years ago, Earth was an inhospitable place, devoid of oxygen, bursting with volcanic eruptions, and bombarded by asteroids, with no signs of life in even the simplest forms. […]
Posted inCalifornia
Study finds more extreme storms ahead for California
Jan. 3, 2017 – On December 11, 2014, a freight train of a storm steamed through much of California, deluging the San Francisco Bay Area with three inches of rain in just one hour. The storm was fueled by what meteorologists refer to as the “Pineapple Express” — an atmospheric river of moisture that is […]