Latest Physical geography Stories
The main source of online weather training for hundreds of thousands of forecasters, emergency managers, and others in the US and abroad is turning to donations to try to stay in service. COMET, managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, faces a funding shortfall caused by government budget cuts. BOULDER (PRWEB) April 15, 2013 The main source of online weather training for hundreds of thousands of forecasters, emergency managers, and others in the United States and...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online In 2007, Russian explorers dived down below the North Pole in a submersible and planted a national flag to make the point that it had rights to the energy riches of the Arctic. Now, a group of activists planted a "Flag For The Future" in the same area. The move by the environmentalists, backed by Greenpeace, is meant to try and declare the region "a global sanctuary" that is "free from exploitation." The group also planted a...
1000-year Antarctic Peninsula climate reconstruction A new 1000-year Antarctic Peninsula climate reconstruction shows that summer ice melting has intensified almost ten-fold, and mostly since the mid 20th Century. Summer ice melt affects the stability of Antarctic ice shelves and glaciers. The research, published this week in the journal Nature Geoscience, adds new knowledge to the international effort that is required to understand the causes of environmental change in Antarctica and...
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online As the debate over climate change continues, so does the publication of studies that support or challenge the notion that human activity is the main driver of rising temperatures. According to a new study in Nature Geoscience, the dramatic thinning of glaciers in Western Antarctica is due to natural variation, and cannot be attributed directly to carbon emissions. "If we could look back at this region of Antarctica in the 1940s...
ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies Leading international marine scientists have called for the protection of more, large marine wilderness areas in a bid to shield the world’s dwindling stocks of fish from destruction. Working in the world’s largest unfished marine reserve, the remote Chagos Archipelago in the central Indian Ocean, scientists from Australia and the US have shown there is a dramatic difference in the numbers, size and variety of fish compared with...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online The question of ice-free summers in the Arctic, for most scientists, is not "if," but "when." A new study by two National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists says that "when" is coming sooner than many thought. Already, the Arctic has experienced a loss of thick, multi-year ice, with last September’s extent being less than half the average of 1979-2000. The scientists, James Overland of NOAA’s Pacific...
Harvard researchers are adding statistical nuance to our understanding of how modern and historical temperatures compare. Through developing a statistical model of Arctic temperature and how it relates to instrumental and proxy records derived from trees, ice cores, and lake sediments, Martin Tingley, a research associate in Harvard's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Peter Huybers, Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, have shown that the warmest summers in the last two...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Scientists thought forest lines on mountains would start growing in higher elevations as the planet's temperature began to rise due to global warming, but new research out of the University of Calgary found it not to be the case. The team found local geologic and geomorphic conditions would limit trees being established at higher elevations on mountains. They wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences temperature...
If you've ever stood on a hill during a rainstorm, you've probably witnessed landscape evolution, at least on a small scale: rivulets of water streaming down a slope, cutting deeper trenches in the earth when the rain turns heavier. It's a simple phenomenon that scientists have long believed applies to large-scale landforms as well — that is, rivers cut faster into mountains that receive heavier precipitation. It's thought that if rainfall patterns influence how rivers cut into rock,...
Learn More About Arctic Challenges and Opportunities at the National Press Club Newsmakers Luncheon with Iceland's President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, U.S. and Arctic Partners REYKJAVIK, Iceland, April 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Grimsson will announce a new assembly to promote collaboration among Arctic and international partners. The mission of the Arctic Circle is to convene a diverse group of stakeholders in an annual gathering to facilitate dialogue and build relationships to...
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...
