Some of the most dramatic climate events in history are the Snowball Earth episodes, which occurred hundreds of millions of years ago. Nearly the entire planet was covered in ice up to a kilometer (0.6 miles) thick during these periods.&nbsp;



The rare Snowball Earth events did not follow regular cycles but lasted for millions to tens of millions of years before being followed by intense <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ancient-global-warming-event-sheds-light-on-earths-future/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">warming</a>. Despite their significance, the details surrounding how these frozen periods ended are still not fully understood.



A new study led by the <a href="https://www.washington.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Washington</a> (UW) offers a more complete picture of how the last Snowball Earth episode ended and sheds light on why it was followed by a major expansion of life, including the emergence of Earth's first animals.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-changes-in-key-earth-properties">Changes in key Earth properties</h2>



The research, published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-51412-8" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature Communications</a>, focuses on ancient rocks known as “cap carbonates,” which are believed to have formed as the planet’s ice sheets thawed.&nbsp;



These rocks provide clues about the state of Earth's atmosphere and oceans roughly 640 million years ago - long before ice cores or <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/earths-largest-ever-solar-storm-discovered-through-tree-rings/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tree rings</a> could record such history.



Study lead author Trent Thomas is a doctoral student in earth and space sciences at UW.



“Cap carbonates contain information about key properties of Earth's atmosphere and ocean, such as changing levels of carbon dioxide in the air or the acidity of the ocean,” said Thomas. "Our theory now shows how these properties changed during and after Snowball Earth.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-formation-of-cap-carbonates-nbsp">Formation of cap carbonates&nbsp;</h2>



Cap carbonates are layered limestone or dolomite rocks with distinct chemical properties. Today, they can be found in more than 50 locations worldwide, including places like Death Valley, Namibia, Siberia, Ireland, and Australia.&nbsp;



These formations are believed to have resulted from the melting of the ice sheets that once covered Earth, triggering significant shifts in atmospheric and oceanic chemistry. The unique sediments were then deposited on the ocean floor.



The rocks are called “caps” because they lie atop the glacial deposits left behind after the Snowball Earth <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/most-complete-record-of-snowball-earth-found-in-rock-formation/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">events</a>, and they’re classified as “carbonates” because they consist of carbon-containing limestone or dolomite.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-animals-appeared-after-the-last-snowball-earth-nbsp">Animals appeared after the last Snowball Earth&nbsp;</h2>



Understanding how these rocks formed helps clarify the carbon cycle during periods of dramatic climate shifts. 



This latest study, which models these environmental changes, also provides clues about the evolution of life on Earth and explains why more complex life-forms emerged following the last Snowball Earth.



“Life on Earth was simple - in the form of microbes, algae, or other tiny aquatic organisms - for over two billion years leading up to Snowball Earth,” said senior author David Catling, a professor of earth and space sciences at UW.&nbsp;



“In fact, the billion years leading up to Snowball Earth are called the ‘boring billion’ because so little happened. Then two Snowball Earth events occurred, and soon after, animals appear in the fossil record.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-chemistry-of-a-snow-covered-earth-nbsp">Chemistry of a snow-covered Earth&nbsp;</h2>



The new research offers a framework to explain how these two events may be connected. The study models the chemistry and geology during three distinct phases of Snowball Earth.&nbsp;



During the peak of the icy period, the thick ice sheets covering the planet reflected sunlight, though some open water allowed limited exchange between the ocean and atmosphere. Meanwhile, the cold seawater continued reacting with the ocean floor.



Over time, carbon dioxide built up in the atmosphere until it trapped enough heat to warm the planet and melt the ice.&nbsp;



Once this occurred, rainfall began again, and freshwater from glacial melt poured into the oceans, creating a layer of meltwater that floated on top of the denser, salty ocean water.&nbsp;



This layering slowed down ocean circulation. Eventually, ocean mixing resumed, allowing the upper ocean, deep ocean, and atmosphere to interact again.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-earth-s-recovery-from-the-snowball-period-nbsp">Earth's recovery from the Snowball period&nbsp;</h2>



“We predict important changes in the environment as Earth recovered from the Snowball period, some of which affected the temperature, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/preparing-for-ocean-acidification-a-silent-killer-of-climate-change/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">acidity</a>, and circulation of the ocean. Now that we know these changes, we can more confidently figure out how they affected Earth’s life,” noted Thomas.



The research team plans to continue exploring how pockets of life that may have survived during Snowball Earth’s tumultuous aftermath could have evolved into the more complex <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-life-and-environment-co-evolved-over-500-million-years/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">life</a> forms that appeared shortly after.



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‘Snowball Earth’ event set the stage for complex life

Some of the most dramatic climate events in history are the Snowball Earth episodes, which occurred hundreds of millions of years ago. Nearly the entire planet was covered in ice up to a kilometer (0.6 miles) thick during these periods.&nbsp; The rare Snowball Earth events did not follow regular cycles but lasted for millions to tens of millions of years before being followed by intense warming. Despite their significance, the details surrounding how these frozen periods ended are still not fully understood. A new study led by...

A new study led by the <a href="https://www.mit.edu/">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a> (MIT) has found that artificial intelligence models of language that excel at predicting the next word in a string of text are surprisingly similar to the human <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-brain-responds-to-bad-smells-within-300-milliseconds/">brain</a>, which appears to use next-word prediction to drive language processing. These predictive language models are able to perform tasks that require some degree of genuine understanding, such as question answering, story completion, or document summarization.&nbsp;



Although such computer models were designed to optimize performance in search engines or texting apps, without attempting to mimic human cognition, this new study suggests that their underlying functioning resembles the ways in which language-processing centers in the human brain work.&nbsp;



“The better the model is at predicting the next word, the more closely it fits the human brain,” said study co-author Nancy Kanwisher, a professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at MIT. “It’s amazing that the models fit so well, and it very indirectly suggests that maybe what the human language system is doing is predicting what’s going to happen next.”&nbsp;



The researchers analyzed 43 different language models, including some that were optimized for next-word prediction. By comparing the functioning of these artificial models with neuronal patterns activated when humans listened to stories or read sentences, they discovered that the best-performing next-word prediction models had activity patterns closely resembling those found in human brains.&nbsp;



“We found that the models that predict the neural responses well also tend to best predict human behavior responses, in the form of reading times. And then both of these are explained by the model performance on next-word prediction. This triangle really connects everything together,” explained study first author Martin Schrimpf, an MIT graduate student.



The researchers now plan to build variants of these language processing models that can perform other kinds of tasks, such as the construction of perceptual representations of the physical world.&nbsp;



“If we’re able to understand what these language models do and how they can connect to models which do things that are more like perceiving and thinking, then that can give us more integrative models of how things work in the brain,” explained study senior author Joshua Tenenbaum.&nbsp;



“This could take us toward better artificial intelligence models, as well as giving us better models of how more of the brain works and how general intelligence emerges, than we’ve had in the past.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.pnas.org/">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Computer models can mimic human language processing

A new study led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...

There has been a puzzling gap in our understanding of the evolutionary history of crabs on <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/frequent-asteroid-strikes-delayed-oxygen-growth-on-earth/">Earth</a>. The oldest fossilized remains of land crabs, mostly pieces of claws, date to somewhere between 75 and 50 million years ago. But DNA analysis suggests that land crabs diverged from their marine ancestors more than 125 million years ago.&nbsp;



It was against this background that Javier Luque,&nbsp;a post-doctoral researcher in the Harvard Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, became aware of an unusual specimen of a modern-looking crab that had been collected by local miners in Myanmar in 2015.&nbsp; The specimen was suspended in fossilized amber and is currently housed at the Longyin Amber Museum in China.



Luque worked on the specimen for three years, starting in 2018. In collaboration with a team of international scientists,&nbsp;Luque <a href="https://science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abj5689">reported the findings</a> in the journal&nbsp;<a href="https://www.science.org/journal/sciadv">Science Advances</a>.



The fossilized amber, which formed from the resin of an ancient tree, has been dated to 100 million years, making the tiny crab the oldest known fossil of a “true crab." The crab is only 5 millimeters in size, and was walking along a tree trunk at the time it became engulfed in resin. It represents the oldest evidence of incursions into non-marine environments by true crabs.



“If we were to reconstruct the crab tree of life – putting together a genealogical family tree – and do some molecular DNA analysis, the prediction is that nonmarine crabs split from their marine ancestors more than 125 million years ago,” said Luque.



"But there’s a problem because the actual fossil record – the one that we can touch – is way young at 75 to 50 million years old. So, this new fossil and its mid-Cretaceous age allows us to bridge the gap between the predicted molecular divergence and the actual fossil record of crabs.”



Moving from a marine to a nonmarine habitat involves many significant adaptations and has not happened commonly in most animal groups. The physical and physiological requirements for animals living in saltwater are different from those in fresh water, making invasion of terrestrial aquatic habitats very challenging. In addition, there are different predators and competitors in freshwater habitats.&nbsp;



True crabs, or Brachyura, are among the animal groups that have conquered land, brackish water, and freshwater multiple times over the history of their evolution, but the crab in amber gives evidence of the earliest land invasion made by the true crabs.



The researchers now believe that an event known as the Cretaceous Crab Revolution – when crabs diversified worldwide and started evolving their characteristic body forms – happened more times than previously thought. This new research brings the number of times that different crab species independently evolved to live outside their marine habitat to at least 12.&nbsp;



The new fossil was named Cretapsara athanata, meaning “the immortal Cretaceous spirit of the clouds and waters.” The name was given to honor its origin in the Cretaceous period as well as the South and Southeast Asian mythological spirits. The researchers say it is the most complete fossilized crab ever discovered.



The specimen was examined using micro-CT scans, that enabled the scientists to see extraordinary detail of the crab’s delicate tissues, including antennae, legs, mouthparts, compound eyes and gills. Based on the crab’s exceptional preservation in amber, and the researchers’ phylogenetic analysis, it has been placed in a new family with a unique mixture of primitive and advanced characters.



The study was a collaboration between Harvard and the China University of Geosciences, and included authors from 10 institutions including Yale University, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institution Panama, University of Alberta, UC Berkeley, Yunnan University, and the Royal Saskatchewan Museum.



The work is part of a larger National Science Foundation funded project with Javier Ortega-Hernández, an assistant professor in OEB and curator of invertebrate paleontology in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Joanna Wolfe, a researcher in Ortega-Hernández’ lab, and Heather Bracken-Grissom from Florida International University, to investigate the evolution of crabs over 200 million years.



The authors acknowledge the socio-political conflict in northern Myanmar and say they have limited their research to material predating the 2017 resumption of hostilities in the region. They hope acknowledging the situation in the Kachin State will serve to raise awareness of the current conflict in Myanmar and the human cost behind it.



“They are all over the world, they make good aquarium pets, they’re delicious for those of us who eat them, and they’re celebrated in parades and festivals, and they even have their own constellation," said Luque, who has been studying crab evolution for more than a decade.



"Crabs in general are fascinating, and some are so bizarre looking – from tiny little pea-shaped crabs to humongous coconut crabs. The diversity of form among crabs is captivating the imagination of the scientific and non-scientific public alike, and right now people are excited to learn more about such a fascinating group that are not dinosaurs. This is a big moment for crabs.”



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Tiny crab found in 100-million-year-old amber

There has been a puzzling gap in our understanding of...

Earth.com has previously covered Bear’s Ears National Monument as it was first <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/utah-national-monument-proposal-sparks-fierce-debate/">established</a>, and again when the Trump administration <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/canyon-tree-frogs-bears/">reduced</a> it by 85 percent. The monument is found in southern Utah and shares much the same fate as the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, also <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/trump-grand-staircase-escalante/">reduced</a> by Trump.&nbsp;



Now, there is a new chapter in the saga, as the Biden administration has reversed Trump’s reduction of the national monuments. This is a move long hoped for by environmentalists, public land advocates and Native American activists.&nbsp;



A <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/10/07/fact-sheet-president-biden-restores-protections-for-three-national-monuments-and-renews-american-leadership-to-steward-lands-waters-and-cultural-resources/">fact sheet</a> from the White House frames the restoration of these national monuments as part of a greater commitment to the environment. The administration has also halted leasing of oil and gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and restored protections to Tongass National Forest. These all point to an attempt to reverse the last administration's legacy of pilfering the public lands and ignoring any conservation prerogatives.



Over the last year, I’ve traveled from the southern part of Arizona all the way through Utah. Along the way, I hiked through saguaro cacti, descended into the Grand Canyon and watched condors circling cliffs in southern Utah. These are big, beautiful desert areas, places full of Native American ruins, an array of arachnids and dinosaur fossils buried in soft stone. Red cliffs stand in contrast to green yucca and the politics of Utah stands in stark contrast with those of federal lands.&nbsp;



The unfortunate reality is this: states like Utah and Alaska, home of Tongass, are hostile to federal land conservation. Trump has shown us that national monuments can be destroyed, wildlife refuges can be drilled for oil, and roads can be built through old growth forests for profits.&nbsp;



Unless a more permanent fix happens, it seems protection could whipsaw back and forth from one administration to the next. In the meantime, if only one road is built through a forest before the rule is reversed, damage is done. If only one artifact is stolen without adequate protection, damage is done.&nbsp;



As things are now, there’s nothing to stop our public lands from being chipped away bit by bit. We should be grateful that these monuments are restored but make no mistake, the war is far from over.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Biden restores national monuments, but for how long?

Earth.com has previously covered Bear’s Ears National Monument as it...

A new study published in the journal <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aba9584">Science</a> investigated how the brains of Egyptian fruit bats process complex group interactions. The researchers found that, within individual brains, different sets of neurons were used to distinguish between <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/baby-birds-can-learn-sounds-before-theyve-even-hatched/">vocalizations</a> made by oneself and others, as well as among different individuals in the group. Across the brains of multiple bats, vocalizations often elicited neuronal synchronization patterns that remained stable over weeks of interaction.&nbsp;



Egyptian fruit bats are highly social creatures, passing the daylight hours packed together with hundreds or thousands of other bats into tight caves or crevices. During these hours, they vocalize to squabble over food, mating partners, or sleeping spaces.



“These bats are very long-lived - they live about 25 years - and basically their entire lives are spent in this group social living. So, the ability to live together in a group and communicate with each other is an inherent feature of their lives,” explained senior author Michael Yartsev, an assistant professor of Neurobiology and Bioengineering at the <a href="https://www.berkeley.edu/">University of California, Berkeley</a>.



By using wireless neural recording devices, the scientists tracked the brain activity of bats as they freely interacted within groups and communicated with each other. They found that within each bat’s frontal cortex (a brain area known to mediate social behaviors in mammals), different sets of neurons were activated depending on which of the bats in the group vocalized.&nbsp;



“What these individual neurons cared about was, ‘Am I making the call? Or is somebody else making the call?’ no matter what type of vocalization it was. Other neurons were only sensitive to when one specific bat within the group was talking,” explained co-author Boaz Styr, a postdoctoral fellow in the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.michaelyartsev.com/">NeuroBat Lab</a>&nbsp;at UC Berkeley.



Moreover, the scientists found that the brains of different bats tended to synchronize when they socialized. This degree of correlation among the group members’ brains depended upon which bat was vocalizing, with some bats having stronger synchronization with specific individuals. These inter-brain patterns lasted for weeks, presumably representing stable social relationships among bats.&nbsp;



Both the intra- and inter-brain activity patterns were modulated by the social preference of individual group members: bats preferring to spend more time with others elicited stronger neural identity representation and higher levels of brain synchrony. Understanding the neural bases of why some individuals can smoothly engage in social interactions, while others are constantly misunderstood or ostracized, could have major implications for improving human mental health.&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Bats have brains that synchronize when they socialize

A new study published in the journal Science investigated how...

According to a recent <a href="https://www.unep.org/resources/report/2021-production-gap-report">report</a> (The Production Gap Report) by the United Nations Environment Programme (<a href="https://www.unep.org/">UNEP</a>), governments’ fossil fuel production plans remain dangerously out of sync with the limits imposed by the <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement">Paris Agreement</a> that aimed to limit global <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/centuries-old-record-of-arctic-warming-found-in-driftwood/">warming</a> to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius increase by 2030.&nbsp;



The Production Gap Report was first launched in 2019 in order to measure the gap between the governments’ planned production of gas, coal, and oil, and the global production levels allowed to meet the Paris Agreement limits. In 2021, the experts found that, despite increased ambition to mitigate climate change by reducing emissions, governments still plan to produce double the amount of oil and gas by at least 2030.



The 2021 Production Gap Report provides profiles for 15 major countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States.&nbsp;



The scientists involved in the report have found that these countries’ governments plan to produce in the following decade 110 percent more fossil fuel, 240 percent more coal, 57 percent more oil, and 71 percent more gas than would be consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees. Furthermore, since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries have directed over $300 billion in funds towards fossil fuel activities – much more than they have towards clean energy.



“The research is clear: global coal, oil, and gas production must start declining immediately and steeply to be consistent with limiting long-term warming to 1.5°C,” said study lead author Ploy Achakulwisut, an expert in fossil fuels and climate change at the <a href="https://www.sei.org/">Stockholm Environment Institute</a>. “However, governments continue to plan for and support levels of fossil fuel production that are vastly in excess of what we can safely burn."



“The devastating impacts of climate change are here for all to see. There is still time to limit long-term warming to 1.5°C, but this window of opportunity is rapidly closing,” added Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP.&nbsp;



“At COP26 and beyond, the world’s governments must step up, taking rapid and immediate steps to close the fossil fuel production gap and ensure a just and equitable transition. This is what climate ambition looks like.”



---



By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Fossil fuels must be reduced immediately and drastically

According to a recent report (The Production Gap Report) by...

In November 2019, Venice experienced its second worst <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-flood-disaster-in-germany-raises-new-questions-about-extreme-precipitation/">flood</a> in its history, with waters reaching up to 1.87 meters and inundating over 80 percent of the city. Within six weeks, the famous city was flooded four more times, triggering increasing fears about the worsening impact of climate change. 



Although such events have always been common during the autumn and winter months, in 2021 Venice was also flooded during summer. “I can only say that in August, a month when this never used to happen, we had tides over a meter five times,” said Carlo Alberto Tesserin, the chief caretaker of Venice’s iconic St. Mark’s Basilica.



“Conditions are continuing to worsen since the flooding of November 2019. We therefore have the certainty that in these months, flooding is no longer an occasional phenomenon. It is an everyday occurrence,” he added.



Due to its unique topography, with long pointed wooden poles driven straight into the seafloor, and 117 canals flowing throughout the city, Venice is particularly vulnerable to climate change.&nbsp;



According to several studies published in a special issue of the journal <a href="https://nhess.copernicus.org/articles/special_issue1124.html">Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences</a>, long-term future projections indicate a great uncertainty regarding the relative <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sea-levels-are-rising-at-an-alarming-rate/">sea level rise</a> of Venice by the end of the 21st century. The projections range from 17 to 120 centimeters, depending on various greenhouse gas emission scenarios.



In the past, sea level rise was mainly caused by storm surges, but a greater variety of factors will be involved in future flooding, including meteotsunamis (lighter forms of tsunamis generated by atmospheric conditions), or massive planetary atmospheric waves that affect sea levels at multiple scales.&nbsp;



“When you are this close to the upper limit of the tidal range, any meteorological event can be hazardous and cause an extreme flood,” said Piero Lionello, a professor of Oceanographic and Atmospheric Sciences at the <a href="https://international.unisalento.it/">University of Salento</a>. “Small increases can have a large impact.”



In the short-term, the protection of Venice from flooding depends on the effective and timely deployment of the new&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mosevenezia.eu/project/">MoSE</a>&nbsp;coastal defense system, which is designed to predict the water levels four to six hours ahead of their maximum and to close several underwater barriers in order to isolate the lagoon from the sea. However, in terms of long-term planning, greenhouse emissions should be urgently curbed in order to save Venice and other coastal cities.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Venice faces an uncertain fate due to sea level rise

In November 2019, Venice experienced its second worst flood in...

A new study led by <a href="https://www.harvard.edu/">Harvard University</a> has found that between 2.5 and 4 billion years ago, a period known as the Archean Eon, asteroids hit the Earth much more frequently than previously thought. The experts report that these frequent asteroid strikes likely delayed the moment when oxygen started accumulating on our planet. 



The findings could help us better understand when the Earth started its path toward becoming the habitable planet we know today.



During the Archean Eon, it was common for asteroids or comets to hit the Earth. The largest ones, over six miles wide, significantly altered the chemistry of the planet’s atmosphere by creating oxygen sinks that sucked most of the life-sustaining gas out of the atmosphere.



“Free oxygen in the atmosphere is critical for any living being that uses respiration to produce energy,” said Nadja Drabon, an assistant professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. “Without the accumulation of oxygen in the atmosphere we would probably not exist.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



By analyzing records of small pieces of rocks that formed in the fiery collisions between asteroids or comets and the Earth (so-called “impact spherules”), Drabon and her colleagues have discovered that existing planetary bombardment models strongly underestimate how often asteroids and comets would hit Earth. 



The new collision rates suggest that impactors collided with the planet roughly every 15 million years, about 10 times more frequent than previously thought.&nbsp;



These findings align with geological records which show that the oxygen levels remained relatively low during the early Archean Eon, until 2.4 billion years ago, when the bombardment slowed down and the Earth experienced a major rise of oxygen levels known as the Great Oxidation Event (GOE).



“As time went on, collisions become progressively less frequent and too small to be able to significantly alter post-GOE oxygen levels,” said study leader Simone Marchi, a scientist at the <a href="https://www.boulder.swri.edu/">Southwest Research Institute</a> in Boulder, Colorado. “The Earth was on its course to become the current planet.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41561-021-00835-9">Nature Geoscience</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Frequent asteroid strikes delayed oxygen growth on Earth

A new study led by Harvard University has found that...

The detection and recognition of potentially dangerous smells is an ancient mammalian trait. Using a new technique, researchers at the <a href="https://ki.se/en">Karolinska Institutet</a> were able to look at the brain as it detected a bad smell that was potentially <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/hummingbirds-can-smell-dangerous-insects/">dangerous</a>.&nbsp;



"The human avoidance response to unpleasant smells associated with danger has long been seen as a conscious cognitive process, but our study shows for the first time that it's unconscious and extremely rapid," explained study first author Behzad Iravani.



The study shows that negative or dangerous smells are processed in the brain earlier than positive smells.&nbsp;



"We demonstrate that odor valence perception is associated with both gamma and beta activity in the human olfactory bulb (OB)," wrote the researchers.



"Moreover, we show that negative, but not positive, odors initiate an early beta response in the OB, a response that is linked to a preparatory neural motor response in the motor cortex."



While it is known that it is important to be able to identify potentially dangerous smells quickly, the neurological mechanisms behind this ability have remained a mystery.&nbsp;



This is partly due to the fact that there are not many non-invasive ways to measure activity in the olfactory bulb. The researchers in this study developed a new method to measure this activity.



Study participants were subjected to six different smells that might be positive or negative while the electrophysiological activity of their olfactory lobe was measured as it responded to the smells.&nbsp;



"It was clear that the bulb reacts specifically and rapidly to negative smells and sends a direct signal to the motor cortex within about 300 milliseconds," said study last author Professor Johan Lundström. "The signal causes the person to unconsciously lean back and away from the source of the smell."



"The results suggest that our sense of smell is important to our ability to detect dangers in our vicinity, and much of this ability is more unconscious than our response to danger mediated by our senses of vision and hearing."



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.pnas.org/">PNAS</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

The brain responds to bad smells within milliseconds

The detection and recognition of potentially dangerous smells is an...

There has been much debate and hypothesizing about the origins of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/domestication-shrunk-rabbits-brains/">domestication</a> in horses (Equus caballus). Where were they first domesticated, and by whom? How did they spread around the globe and what were their ancestors like? Many previous studies have attempted to answer these questions but no final resolution has been forthcoming, and the early domestication of the horse has remained exceedingly difficult to trace in the archeological record.&nbsp;



In a new study led by Professor Ludovic Orlando of <a href="https://www.cnrs.fr/">CNRS</a>, a team of 162 international scientists has had a breakthrough. The experts, who specialize in archeology, paleogenetics and linguistics used the modern technologies of genetic analysis.&nbsp;



In recent years, a scientific consensus had emerged linking the Botai culture of northern Kazakhstan with the first domestication of horses, based on the presence of 5,500-year-old skeletal remains with damage to the dentition that is commonly linked to the use of bridle mouthpieces. However, when Ludovic Orlando's team looked at the DNA from the archeological remains, they found that the animals were Przewalsky’s horses (Equus przewalski), a totally different species from modern domesticated horses.&nbsp;



In all other locations hypothesized to be potential foci for domestication, for example Anatolia, Siberia and the Iberian Peninsula, the evidence turned out to be false. “We knew that the time period between 4,000 to 6,000 years ago was critical but no smoking guns could ever be found,” said Professor Orlando.&nbsp;



The scientific team thus decided to extend their study and analyze the genomes of 273 horses that lived between 50,000 and 200 years BC, at sites throughout Eurasia. This information was sequenced at the Centre for Anthropobiology and Genomics of Toulouse (CNRS/Université Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier) and Genoscope&nbsp;(CNRS/CEA/Université d’Évry) before being compared with the genomes of modern domestic horses.



The results indicated that, although Eurasia was once populated by genetically distinct horse populations, a dramatic change occurred between 2000 and 2200 BC. “That was a chance: the horses living in Anatolia, Europe, Central Asia and Siberia used to be genetically quite distinct,” explained study first author Dr. Pablo Librado. 



Then, a single genetic profile, previously found only on the Pontic steppes (North Caucasus), began to spread beyond its native region, replacing all the wild horse populations from the Atlantic to Mongolia. From this the authors conclude that horses were first domesticated in the Pontic-Caspian steppes,&nbsp;northern Caucasus, before spreading out through the rest of Eurasia within a few centuries.&nbsp;



“The genetic data also point to an explosive demography at the time, with no equivalent in the last 100,000 years,” said Professor Orlando. “This is when we took control over the reproduction of the animal and produced them in astronomic numbers.”



Two striking differences were found in the genome of this horse that spread so rapidly throughout Eurasia: the new horses had more docile behavior and stronger backbones than the breeds they replaced. The researchers suggest that these characteristics ensured the animals’ success at a time when horse travel was becoming more commonplace and widespread.



Indeed, the research also showed that the genetically different horse spread throughout Asia at the same time as spoke-wheeled chariots and Indo-Iranian languages. However, the migrations of Indo-European populations, from the steppes to Europe during the third millennium BC&nbsp;could not have been based on the horse, as its domestication and diffusion came later. This demonstrates the importance of incorporating the history of animals when studying human migrations and encounters between cultures, state the authors.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/">Nature</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

The origin of horse domestication has finally been revealed

There has been much debate and hypothesizing about the origins...

Mammoths, the woolly cousins of today’s <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/elephants-can-be-very-cooperative-until-the-food-gets-scarce/">elephants</a>, roamed the Earth for over five million years before they mysteriously vanished about 4,000 years ago. A new study led by the <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge</a> has found that the cause of their extinction was not humans, as previously thought, but climate change.



Mammoths lived alongside early humans and were regularly hunted by hominids for food and clothing. Moreover, the animals’ skeletons were used to build shelters and various tools and instruments, ranging from harpoons to flutes.



“Scientists have argued for 100 years about why mammoths went extinct. Humans have been blamed because the animals had survived for millions of years without climate change killing them off before, but when they lived alongside humans they didn’t last long and we were accused of hunting them to death,” said study leader Eske Willerslev, a fellow at the University of Cambridge’s St. John’s College. However, humans in fact lived over 2,000 years alongside mammoths, without causing their extinction.



By analyzing ancient DNA samples from plants and animal remains collected over a period of 20 years from sites in the Arctic where mammoths used to live, Professor Willerslev and his colleagues have found that, after the last Ice Age from late Pleistocene, the climate got wetter and the ice began to melt, leading to the formation of rivers, lakes, and marshes. These changes in the ecosystems significantly reduced the vegetation on which mammoths relied, including various types of grass, small shrubs, plants, and flowers, and made it impossible for them to survive.



“We have finally been able to prove was that it was not just the climate changing that was the problem, but the speed of it that was the final nail in the coffin – they were not able to adapt quickly enough when the landscape dramatically transformed and their food became scarce,” explained Professor Willerslev.



“This is a stark lesson from history and shows how unpredictable climate change is – once something is lost, there is no going back. Precipitation was the cause of the extinction of woolly mammoths through the changes to plants. The change happened so quickly that they could not adapt and evolve to survive,” he concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/">Nature</a>.



Image Credit: Daniel Eskridge



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Mammoths were wiped out by climate change, not humans

Mammoths, the woolly cousins of today’s elephants, roamed the Earth...

Until recently, it was thought that Christopher Columbus was the first European to reach the Americas in 1492. However, a new study led by the <a href="https://www.rug.nl/?lang=en">University of Groningen</a> has found that the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-vikings-had-the-worlds-deadliest-virus-1400-years-ago/">Vikings</a> got there centuries beforehand, and were already active in Newfoundland, Canada, in 1021 AD.&nbsp;



The Vikings sailed great distances in their longships, and established settlements in Iceland, Greenland, and L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada. Yet, the precise number of Viking expeditions to the Americas, and the duration of their stays over the Atlantic remain unknown.&nbsp;



Previous dates for the Viking presence in the Americas have relied heavily on the Icelandic Sagas that began as oral histories and were written down centuries after the events they describe. Although these Sagas often describe both violent and amiable encounters between the Vikings and indigenous American populations, little archaeological evidence has been uncovered to support such exchanges.



In this new study, published in the journal <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03972-8">Nature</a>, the chopping of wood by Vikings at L'Anse aux Meadows was dated to the year 1021 AD. The scientists studied three pieces of wood from three different trees that displayed clear evidence of cutting and slicing by metal blades coming from contexts attributable to the Vikings. The precise dating of these operations was possible because a massive solar storm occurred in 992 AD which produced a distinct radiocarbon signal in tree rings from the following year.



"The distinct uplift in radiocarbon production that occurred between 992 and 993 AD has been detected in tree-ring archives from all over the world" explained study senior author Michael Dee, an associate professor in the <a href="https://www.rug.nl/research/esrig/?lang=en">Energy and Sustainability Research Institute</a> at the University of Groningen. "Finding the signal from the solar storm 29 growth rings in from the bark allowed us to conclude that the cutting activity took place in the year 1021 AD," added&nbsp;study lead author&nbsp;Margot Kuitems, a postdoctoral researcher in the same institute.



This date also marks the earliest known time at which the Atlantic had been crossed, and human migration had finally encircled the entire planet.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

The Vikings reached America long before Columbus

Until recently, it was thought that Christopher Columbus was the...

According to a review of 88,125 climate-related studies, 99.9 percent of peer-reviewed articles agree that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-could-make-earth-inhospitable-by-2500/">climate change</a> is caused by humans. The literature was published from 2012 to November 2020.



In 2013, a similar analysis found that 97 percent of studies published between 1991 and 2012 supported the idea that human activities are the driving force behind climate change.



The findings are a stark contrast with public representatives and opinion polls which falsely suggest that a significant debate still exists among scientists over the causes of climate change. In 2016, for instance, the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/">Pew Research Center</a> found that less than 27 percent of U.S. adults believed that scientists agreed that climate change is caused by human activity.



A research team led by <a href="https://www.cornell.edu/">Cornell University</a> began by examining a random sample of 3,000 studies from the larger dataset and found that only four of them were skeptical about the role that human activities play in promoting global warming.&nbsp;



“We knew that [climate skeptical papers] were vanishingly small in terms of their occurrence, but we thought there still must be more in the 88,000,” said study lead author Mark Lynas,&nbsp;a visiting fellow at the <a href="https://allianceforscience.cornell.edu/">Alliance for Science</a> at Cornell University.



“To understand where a consensus exists, you have to be able to quantify it. That means surveying the literature in a coherent and non-arbitrary way in order to avoid trading cherry-picked papers, which is often how these arguments are carried out in the public sphere."



With the assistance of Simon Perry, a software engineer and volunteer at the Alliance for Science, the researchers created an algorithm that searched keywords from articles the team knew they were skeptical, such as “natural cycles,” “cosmic rays,” or “solar.” After applying the algorithm to the entire dataset, they found only 28 implicitly or explicitly skeptical papers, all published in minor journals.



“We are virtually certain that the consensus is well over 99 percent now and that it’s pretty much case closed for any meaningful public conversation about the reality of human-caused climate change,” said Lynas.&nbsp;



“It's critical to acknowledge the principal role of greenhouse gas emissions so that we can rapidly mobilize new solutions, since we are already witnessing in real time the devastating impacts of climate related disasters on businesses, people and the economy,” concluded study co-author Benjamin Houlton, Dean of the <a href="https://cals.cornell.edu/">College of Agriculture and Life Sciences</a> at Cornell.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/">Environmental Research Letters</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

The debate is over: humans caused climate change

According to a review of 88,125 climate-related studies, 99.9 percent...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Nushagak Bay, a large estuary in southwest Alaska. Nushagak runs mainly north to south and exits in Bristol Bay, a large body of water in the Bering Sea.



"The bay is primarily fed by the Nushagak River, which begins in the Alaska Range and flows southwest approximately 450 km. The bay is also fed by several additional rivers including the Wood, Igushik, Snake and Weary rivers," says ESA.



"The dark colors of the Nushagak River are most likely due to tannins or lignins (chemical substances found in plants). Tannins and lignins from roots, leaves, seeds, bark and soil can leach into the water and give it a brown or even black colour. The sediments then flow southwards where it is mixed with the bluer waters of the bay."



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> (ACS) reveals that proteins on flu viruses are actually flexible, tilting and waving in a “breath-like” motion. According to the experts, these proteins could be used to better defend against the flu.



"The main antigenic targets of influenza virus are two surface glycoproteins, hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). Whereas the structural and dynamical properties of both glycoproteins have been studied previously, the understanding of their plasticity in the whole-virion context is fragmented," wrote the researchers.



To investigate, the team conducted detailed simulations of the influenza A H1N1 virion, or the swine flu. The experts concluded that the visualizations show many new vulnerable states of flu viruses, which could improve future vaccines and antiviral drugs.



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Lake Trasimeno, which is located west of Perugia in central Italy. It is the fourth largest lake in the country. While Trasimeno’s water level varies, it has a maximum depth of approximately six meters.&nbsp;



"In this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image, captured on 6 August 2022, the lake’s emerald green colour is likely due to the presence of phytoplankton. Streaks in the water, particularly visible in the west, indicate the presence of soil and sediments which have been stirred up by winds. Dark colored waters in the southern part of the lake indicate a presence of submerged and floating macrophytes (aquatic plants) as well as algae," says ESA.



"Surrounded by hills on three sides, Trasimeno is subject to heavy storms created by winds, especially from the north and west. There are three islets in the lake: Maggiore, Minore and Polvese (the largest). The lake’s shores are sparsely inhabited with only two popular villages: Castiglione del Lago and Passignano sul Trasimeno."



"Italy is experiencing its worst drought in 70 years which has affected drinking water supplies, hydroelectric power and agricultural production. High temperatures, hot winds and lack of rainfall are the main causes of drought in the Umbrian region which saw Lake Trasimeno’s drop 1.3 m, reaching the limit of the hydrometric zero in July 2022."



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> describes a new self-powered nanosensor that can instantly detect mercury contamination with the tap of a finger.&nbsp;



The oxidized form of mercury can be harmful when it is ingested through contaminated water or food. This makes it necessary for experts to develop sensors that can quickly and accurately detect the presence of mercury.&nbsp;



Zong-Hong Lin and colleagues have now created a triboelectric nanosensor (TENS) that can detect mercury by simply by touching a sample. According to the researchers, their TENS could serve as the basis for similar devices to safely and remotely monitor other pollutants.



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

[sendtonews key="LvS8v8bp9z-2564889-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> explores the ability of salt to transform the way that foods and beverages taste. Salt is known to cover up undesirable flavors, such as bitterness in coffee or beer, but how exactly does sodium chloride change the taste of other compounds?



One previous study showed that, not only does salt suppress bitterness, but also enhances sweetness and sourness. Another study revealed that bitterness reduction by salt seems to be happening at the tongue receptor level as well as in the brain.&nbsp;



While it is known that salt taste is mediated by the presence of sodium channels in the form of taste buds, experts believe that there is also an unknown receptor responsible for how we taste salt that has not yet been identified.&nbsp;



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

How does salt makes things taste better?

[sendtonews key="X0f6OHYoI4-2310561-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Santiago, the capital city of Chile. The city is located in the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Region, which has a population of about eight million people.&nbsp;



'The weather of Santiago resembles the Mediterranean climate with dry and warm summers with temperatures reaching up to 35°C (from October to March) and cool and humid winters that can drop to 0°C (from April to September)."



"The city lies in the centre of the country’s central valley around 80 km from the Pacific Ocean to the west and borders Argentina to the east. A tiny part of Argentina is visible in the top-right corner of the image where the mountain crest of the Andes Mountains acts as a divider between the two countries," says ESA.



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Santiago, Chile in South America

[sendtonews key="JRaP49ISmm-2357509-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

Spiral,Galaxy,,Illustration,Of,Milky,Way

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Astronomers at <a href="https://www.jhu.edu/">Johns Hopkins University</a> have created an interactive map of the universe, including the actual position and real colors of 200,000 galaxies. The map allows the public to access data that was previously only available to scientists.



The map was developed using data collected by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. For over two decades, a telescope in New Mexico was aimed at slightly different locations to capture the night sky.&nbsp;



"Growing up I was very inspired by astronomy pictures, stars, nebulae and galaxies, and now it's our time to create a new type of picture to inspire people," said map creator Brice Ménard, a professor at Johns Hopkins. "Astrophysicists around the world have been analyzing this data for years, leading to thousands of scientific papers and discoveries. But nobody took the time to create a map that is beautiful, scientifically accurate, and accessible to people who are not scientists. Our goal here is to show everybody what the universe really looks like."



"In this map, we are just a speck at the very bottom, just one pixel. And when I say we, I mean our galaxy, the Milky Way which has billions of stars and planets. We are used to seeing astronomical pictures showing one galaxy here, one galaxy there or perhaps a group of galaxies. But what this map shows is a very, very different scale."



"From this speck at the bottom, we are able to map out galaxies across the entire universe, and that says something about the power of science."



The <a href="https://mapoftheuniverse.net/">interactive map</a> is available online, where it can be downloaded for free.



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

[sendtonews key="e4ZG0Jawp3-2374785-12187" type="single"] Astronomers at Johns Hopkins University have created...

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Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky" Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features northwest Lesotho in South Africa.



According to ESA, Lesotho is the only nation in the world that lies completely above 1,000 m in elevation. The country is famous for its tall mountains and narrow valleys, and is known as Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky."



Out of a population of around two million people, about 80 percent live in rural areas. More than 75 percent of these people are engaged in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-will-have-a-global-impact-on-agriculture/">agriculture</a>, including rainfed cereal production and animal grazing.&nbsp;



ESA reports that the country’s agricultural system faces a growing number of issues, with climate-related vulnerabilities such as drought, floods and extreme temperatures occurring more frequently. 



Diamonds are amongst the minerals found in the mountains. Indeed, Lesotho can truly be called the Kingdom in the Sky. Beautiful, culturally rich, safe, affordable, and easily accessible from Durban and Johannesburg, mountainous Lesotho is a vastly underrated travel destination. the Kingdom of Lesotho (Sotho: 'Muso oa Lesotho) is an enclaved country in southern Africa. It is just over 30,000 km2 (11,583 sq mi) in size and has a population of around 2 million.



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Dublin, the capital and largest city of Ireland. Beyond its pub culture, Dublin is known as a modern culinary destination and a UNESCO City of Literature.



"Dublin is located near the midpoint of Ireland’s east coast in the province of Leinster. The city, which covers an area of around 115 square kilometers, is bordered by the Dublin Mountains, a low mountain range to the south, and is surrounded by flat farmland to the north and west," says ESA.



"The city straddles the River Liffey, which rises in the Wicklow Mountains and flows around 80 kilometers eastwards through the city of Dublin, in which it is canalised and bordered with quays. It then empties into Dublin Bay, an arm of the Irish Sea."



Dublin has an abundance of green spaces, including one of the largest enclosed public parks in any European capital city. Phoenix Park, which was originally formed as a royal hunting park in the 1660s, includes 707 hectares of green space.



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features the province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain. The image was captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.



"Together with the provinces of Huesca and Teruel, Zaragoza formed the old kingdom of Aragon. Its capital, also called Zaragoza (not visible in this image) is home to around half of Aragon’s population," says ESA.



"The Ebro River can be seen winding its way through the province from west to east in this image. Between its source in the Cantabrian Mountains in the northwest and its delta on the Mediterranean coast, the Ebro River is fed by more than 200 tributaries as it flows 910 km across much of northern Spain."



Since rainfall is very scarce in this region, irrigation in the Ebro basin is critically important. In the valleys surrounding the Ebro River, many fields are used for growing crops such as corn, wheat, and barley.



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> reveals the evolution of the Columbia Glacier in southeastern Alaska. Columbia is among the fastest shrinking glaciers in the world, and the video documents its rapid retreat over the years.&nbsp;



Columbia Glacier is a large, multi-branched calving glacier that flows out of the Chugach Mountains to the Prince William Sound.&nbsp;



According to USGS, Columbia had a long history of stability prior to 1980, with a length 41 miles, and small, short-lived advances or retreats.



In the years since 1980, however, satellite images have captured Columbia’s alarming retreat. By using false-color images, scientists can distinguish between snow and ice, open water, vegetation, and rocky debris on the glacier’s surface.



The series of false-color images featured in today's video were acquired over the span of 35 years. You can see that by 2021, the glacier’s main branch had retreated about 15 miles from its initial position.



The Columbia Glacier has also lost more than 50 percent of its volume, mostly due to calving. <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/nasa-reveals-3d-visual-of-an-atmospheric-river/">NASA</a> reports that while climate change likely started the retreat, mechanical processes kept the disintegration going.



The NASA images are provided by Jesse Allen, Robert Simmon, Joshua Stevens, and Lauren Dauphin using data from Landsat satellites, from the U.S. Geological Survey, and data from MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite. The structure of Columbia’s moraine played a large role in the stability of the glacier before 1980. 



Like other tidewater glaciers, the Columbia built up a moraine over time, and the mixture of ice and rock functioned like a dam keeping out the sea. It was supported on one end by the shoreline and by the underwater terminal moraine at the other.



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/&nbsp; NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features the Pyrenees Mountains, which form a natural boundary between France and Spain in southwest Europe.



The mountain range is 430 kilometers in length. It stretches from the Mediterranean Sea on the east to the Atlantic Ocean on the west.



At an elevation of 3404 meters, Pico de Aneto is the highest mountain peak in the Pyrenees, and the third-highest peak in Spain. Pico de Aneto is located in the Posets-Maladeta Natural Park, which spans more than 82,000 acres.&nbsp;



"Geological studies have revealed that the Pyrenees Mountains have been around for longer than the Alps, with their sediments first deposited in coastal basins during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras," reports ESA.



"The entire mountain range formed due to the upwelling of large sedimentary rocks by the collision of the Iberian and the Eurasian plate around 100 to 150 million years ago, followed by intense erosion from ice and water."



The western Pyrenees receive more precipitation due to moisture blowing in from the Atlantic Ocean. The mountain range contains many lakes, several small glaciers, and some of the highest waterfalls in Europe.



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes two exoplanets that are orbiting a star 218 light-years away. A team of researchers led by the University of Montreal has found evidence that these planets are "water worlds."



The experts used data from NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. They discovered that exoplanets Kepler-138 c and Kepler-138 could be composed largely of water.



"We previously thought that planets that were a bit larger than Earth were big balls of metal and rock, like scaled-up versions of Earth, and that's why we called them super-Earths," explained study co-author Björn Benneke.&nbsp;



"However, we have now shown that these two planets, Kepler-138 c and d, are quite different in nature and that a big fraction of their entire volume is likely composed of water. It is the best evidence yet for water worlds, a type of planet that was theorized by astronomers to exist for a long time."



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and Leah Hustak (STScI)



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

[sendtonews key="QIoVYJqRBi-2434608-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes Earth’s interconnected systems, and how this network is affected by rising temperatures.&nbsp;



During 2020, average global temperatures matched the hottest year on record. The hurricane season was also record-breaking, with many of the storms intensifying at extraordinary speeds. Hot water in the ocean is fuel for hurricanes. The satellite data shows that it's all one interconnected system showing how Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected.



According to NASA, dust swept up from Northern Africa plays a major role in the formation of hurricanes, and is also a key source of fertilization in the Amazon rainforest. As a result of<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seagrass-wasting-disease-is-fueled-by-climate-change/"> climate</a> change, dust plumes are expected to decline, which will have an effect on vegetation far away.&nbsp;



Images from Earth-observing satellites show how the world’s plant life is affected by natural disasters, fires, and deforestation. Satellites also reveal how widespread changes in vegetation impact waterways,&nbsp; the climate, air quality. Satellites communicate by using radio waves to send signals to the antennas on the Earth. "Earth From Space" is a groundbreaking two-hour special that reveals a spectacular new space-based vision of our planet. 



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

[sendtonews key="JbW4VsY53O-1632195-12187" type="single"] Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected...

Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://welcome.miami.edu/">University of Miami</a> Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science explores how changes in water temperatures have affected tiger shark habitats and movements in the North Atlantic Ocean. The study reveals that rising temperatures have caused the sharks to shift toward the poles over the past 40 years.



“Tiger shark annual migrations have expanded poleward, paralleling rising water temperatures,” explained study lead author Neil Hammerschlag. “These results have consequences for tiger shark conservation, since shifts in their movements outside of marine protected areas may leave them more vulnerable to commercial fishing.”



The researchers analyzed nine years of tracking data from satellite-tagged tiger sharks, combined with four decades of conventional tag and recapture data provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Cooperative Shark Tagging Program.



The experts found that during the last decade of record heat, for every one-degree Celsius increase in water temperatures, tiger sharks migrated further poleward by over 400 kilometers. They also migrated two weeks earlier than usual to waters off the northeastern coast of the United States.



“Given their role as apex predators, these changes to tiger shark movements may alter predator-prey interactions, leading to ecological imbalances, and more frequent encounters with humans,” concluded Professor Hammerschlag.



Video Credit: University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

Today’s Video of the Day from the University of Miami...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> is focused on the melt ponds that emerge during the spring and summer on the Greenland Ice Sheet, which is the largest ice mass in the northern hemisphere.



"Melt ponds are vast pools of open water that form on both sea ice and ice sheets and are visible as turquoise-blue pools of water in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image," says ESA.



"When snow and ice melts atop glaciers, water flows in channels and streams and collects in depressions on the surface. These melt ponds can speed up the melting of the surrounding ice since they greatly reduce the ice’s ability to reflect sunlight."



"This can create a positive feedback where an increasing number of melt ponds absorb more heat which causes ice cover to melt even faster."



According to ESA, Greenland has been hit with a late-season heatwave that began in early September. This caused the type of melt event that usually occurs in the middle of summer.



"In a recent paper published in Nature Climate Change, scientists found that major sea-level rise from the melting of the Greenland ice cap is now ‘inevitable’ even if the burning of fossil fuels were to halt overnight," says ESA. "Using satellite observations of Greenland ice loss and ice cap from 2000 to 2019, the team found the losses will lead to a minimum rise of 27 cm regardless of climate change."



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes a new map of Mars that is providing insight into the planet’s watery past. The map also reveals where future missions could safely land on Mars.&nbsp;



The map has been created over the last decade using observations of water-rich rocks and mineral deposits. The images were captured by ESA’s Mars Express and NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.



"A big surprise is the prevalence of these minerals, with the map revealing hundreds of thousands of water-affected locations in the oldest parts of the planet," says ESA. "The new data will help answer exciting questions about Mars’ climate history, whether water was globally persistent or confined to short, intense episodes, and whether the conditions were ever suitable for life."



"Specifically, the map shows the locations and abundances of aqueous minerals. These are from rocks that have been chemically altered by the action of water in the past, and have typically been transformed into clays and salts."



According to John Carter of the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS), our collective understanding of Mars has been oversimplified. He explained that planetary scientists have tended to think that only a few types of clay minerals on Mars were created during its wet period, then as the water gradually dried up, salts were produced across the planet.



The new map shows that the composition of Mars is much more complicated than what we thought. For example, while many salts formed after Martian clays, there are some salts that are presumed to be older than some of the clays.&nbsp;



“The evolution from lots of water to no water is not as clear cut as we thought, the water didn’t just stop overnight. We see a huge diversity of geological contexts, so that no one process or simple timeline can explain the evolution of the mineralogy of Mars. That’s the first result of our study. The second is that if you exclude life processes on Earth, Mars exhibits a diversity of mineralogy in geological settings just as Earth does,” said Carter.



Video Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

The history of Mars is much more complex than we thought

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.stowers.org/">Stowers Institute for Medical Research</a> describes how cavefish adapted to a sedentary lifestyle over tens of thousands of years. 



The experts found that the muscle metabolism of cavefish has been genetically reprogrammed over time. As a result, the animals have experienced major changes in their morphology and behavior. Despite these changes, however, the cavefish remain healthy and fit.



The research may provide new clues about the evolutionary consequences of prolonged physical inactivity in humans.&nbsp;



“It’s no surprise that people are moving less and less as technology has advanced,” said Rohner. “With cavefish, we have a unique system where we can study what might happen if people remained couch potatoes over very, very long periods of time.”



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Cavefish are healthy despite their sedentary lifestyle

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> some of the most incredible waves in the world, as seen by Landsat satellites.



"With more than 370,000 miles of coastline on Earth, there are plenty of places where epic waves build up, curl over, and hurtle toward the shore.- much to the thrill of surfers," says NASA. "There are some places where these waves are so magnificent that they can be seen from space."



"With the broad perspective of satellites, we can see how these iconic waves develop into the world’s tallest, longest, fastest, and heaviest."



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Satellites capture the world's biggest and fastest waves

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes why satellite images and measurements of our planet have become "essential to our survival, offering a new outlook of our world."&nbsp;



Rising sea levels pose one of the biggest societal threats associated with climate change. According to ESA, satellite altimeter missions such as Copernicus Sentinel-6 are essential in monitoring global and regional changes in sea level.



"Unbeknown to many, the island of Crete, Greece, plays an important role in the Copernicus satellite altimetry constellation and on an international stage," reports ESA.



"Satellite altimetry data have to be continuously monitored at the ESA’s Permanent Facility for Altimetry Calibration where different techniques have pioneered the use of transponders to provide the best measurements to validate satellite altimeters in space soon after launch."



Dr. Craig Donlon explains that, by understanding planet Earth through satellite measurements, we are able to find evidence of change.&nbsp;



Video Credit: European Space Agency&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Satellites have become essential to our survival

[sendtonews key="761m2QQvR1-2035772-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...