Latest Physical geography Stories
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the largest coral system in the world, so big that it can be seen from space, is one of the planet’s most remarkable natural wonders. But researchers from University of Queensland have now revealed this precious ecosystem is not faring so well. The problem: European settlement and extensive degradation on mainland Australia. The expansion of European settlement in Australia has been contributing...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online New research, partially funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), shows that the breeding population of chinstrap penguins has significantly declined as temperatures have increased on the Antarctic Peninsula. Changing climatic conditions, rather than the impact of tourism, has the greatest effect on the chinstrap population. The findings of this study, conducted by a research team with the Antarctic Site Inventory (ASI), have...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Climate scientists have long debated whether floodwaters from melting of the Laurentide Ice Sheet flowed northwest into the Arctic first, or east via the Gulf of St. Lawrence to weaken ocean thermohaline circulation and have a frigid effect on global climate. This debate concerning the melt, which ushered in the last major cold episode about 12,900 years ago, has been raging for about 30 years. A research team from the University of...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Global warming is causing sea levels to rise faster than previously expected and geologist Bill Hay from the University of Colorado Boulder has a theory to explain why. The most recent IPCC report released in 2007 projected a global sea level rise between 0.2 and 0.5 meters by 2100, but current sea level measurements meet or exceed the high end of that range. This suggests a rise of one meter or more by the end of the century....
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory A new analysis led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has estimated how much the growth of plants worldwide is limited by the amount of nutrients available in their soil. The maps produced from the research will be particularly useful in evaluating how much carbon dioxide Earth's ecosystems may be able to soak up as greenhouse gas levels increase. A research team led by JPL research scientist Josh Fisher used 19 years of data from NASA,...
BEIJING, Nov. 1, 2012 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Tri-Tech Holding Inc. (Nasdaq: TRIT), which provides turn-key water resources management, water and wastewater treatment, industrial safety and pollution control solutions, announced today that it has secured contracts for flash flood early warning and small river hydrologic monitoring projects in two provinces in China. The projects total approximately $1.42 million (approximately RMB 8.95 million). (Logo:...
STARKVILLE, Miss., Oct. 30, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As Hurricane Sandy pummels the East Coast, Mississippi State University meteorology experts are some of the most trusted voices in the national conversation about natural disaster education and awareness. When people are aware of a coming storm and understand its dangers and its capacity to obstruct electricity, transportation, water and other everyday comforts, fewer people die. That's the goal for MSU climatology and...
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online As global warming extends its balmy fingers further into the Arctic regions, defrosting permafrost could release up to 44 billion tons of nitrogen and 850 tons of carbon into the atmosphere, according to a new study from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The doubling of atmospheric carbon that would result from such an unprecedented thaw figures to impact ecosystems, the atmosphere, the Earth’s lakes and rivers, the researchers said...
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Scientists have found evidence of a deadly tsunami that inundated coastal Switzerland in AD 563 after a rockfall near the River Rhone swept Lake Geneva. A wall of water 42 feet high crashed the shore, destroying villages along the coast and killing people and livestock, according to historical accounts of the incident. Scientists now say that Geneva and Lausanne remain vulnerable to similar events today, as do other cities on the...
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The future of Australia’s once highly touted Wilkins airstrip, built to link the country with its research stations in Antarctica, is in jeopardy as warmer temperatures have caused the $46-million runway carved from glacial ice to soften and melt. The Australian government announced on Wednesday that it was looking at both temporary and permanent alternatives for supplying its research stations on the frozen continent. "There...
Latest Physical geography Reference Libraries
The dusky pademelon (Thylogale brunii), also known as the dusky wallaby, is a marsupial that can be found on the Kai and Aru islands, Papua New Guinea, and in the Trans Fly savanna and grasslands ecoregion in Papua Province in Indonesia. It prefers a habitat in both arid and tropical savannahs, forests, shrublands, lowlands, and grasslands. This species was named after its discoverer, Cornelis de Bruijn, and was once commonly known as philander, or “friend of man,” and the Aru Island...
Desert greening is made up of any number of methods used to revitalize deserts. So far, only arid and semi-arid desert are meant when using this expression. The icy deserts and other types are considered to be unsuitable. The different methods include landscaping methods to reduce evaporation, erosion, consolidation of topsoil, temperature, sandstorms and more, permaculture in general, planting trees, regeneration of salty, polluted, or degenerated soils, floodwater retention and...
Mammoth Cave National Park is located in the state of Kentucky in the United States. The park holds 52,830 acres of land that was once inhabited by Native Americans. Many mummies and artifacts have been found in Mammoth Cave and surrounding caves to support this. It is thought that first man of European descent to visit the area was John Houchin or Francis Houchin. The legend says that one of the brothers was hunting a wounded bear that entered the cave to hide. The first documented discovery...
Coral reefs are submerged structures consisting of calcium carbonate secreted by corals. Coral reefs are colonies of small animals found in marine waters that enclose few nutrients. The majority of coral reefs are constructed from stony corals, which then consist of polyps that come together in groups. The polyps are like small sea anemones, to which they are very closely related. Unlike the sea anemones, coral polyps secrete hard carbonate exoskeletons which provide support and protections...
Mudflats, or otherwise known as tidal flats, are coastal wetlands that form when mud is left behind by tides or rivers. They’re found in sheltered regions such as bayous, lagoons, estuaries, and bays. Mudflats might be seen geologically as exposed layers of bay mud, a result from the deposition of estuarine silts, marine animal detritus, and clays. The majority of the sediment in a mudflat is within the intertidal zone, therefore the flat is submerged and exposed about twice per day. In...
