Human litter has now infiltrated the deepest parts of Earth's oceans and seas. Debris and trash produced by human activity was spotted at a depth of 5,112 meters (3.2 miles) in the Mediterranean Sea. 



The site, which is the deepest point in the Mediterranean, is known as Calypso Deep, and is located off the south-western coast of Greece in the Ionian Sea.



In a new study, researchers have identified 167 objects at the bottom. Of these, 148 were clearly marine debris, while 19 were believed to be of human origin, though less definitively.



According to the authors, this represents one of the highest concentrations of litter documented at great depths in any sea.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-debris-in-the-bottom-of-the-sea">Debris in the bottom of the sea </h2>



To investigate the Calypso Deep, scientists used a crewed submersible called the Limiting Factor, a deep-submergence vehicle capable of withstanding extreme pressure.



Images captured by the Limiting Factor confirm that besides accumulating on coasts, surface waters and shallower bottoms, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/is-it-still-possible-to-save-the-ocean-from-plastic-pollution/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">marine waste</a> also reaches the deepest, most remote points of the Mediterranean Sea.&nbsp;



Given the heavy impact of human activities on this nearly enclosed sea, the discovery emphasizes the urgency of global actions to reduce marine debris and a need for lifestyle changes that cut waste and protect marine environments worldwide.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-calypso-deep-as-a-debris-trap">The Calypso Deep as a debris trap</h2>



Located about 60 kilometers (37 miles) south west of the Peloponnese coast in Greece, the Calypso Deep is a depression within the Hellenic Trench system. 



Surrounded by steep terrain in an area with active faults, it has slopes measuring thousands of meters and a mostly flat floor at its lowest point. 



Its deeper, kidney-shaped portion extends over approximately 20 by 5 kilometers (12 by 3 miles) at depths surpassing 5,000 meters (3 miles).



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-litter-s-journey-to-the-bottom">Litter's journey to the bottom</h2>



But how does rubbish collect so far down?



According to Miquel Canals from the University of Barcelona’s <a href="https://www.ub.edu/portal/web/earth-sciences" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Faculty of Earth Sciences</a>, the debris comes from various sources, both terrestrial and marine. 



It could have arrived by various routes, including both long-distance transport by <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/weakening-ocean-currents-could-cost-trillions-of-dollars/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ocean currents</a> and direct dumping. 



Canals explains that plastic items, for instance, can drift from coastal waters. 



Some light waste, such as plastics, comes from the coast, from where it escapes to the Calypso Deep, just 60 kilometers [37 miles] away. 



Some plastics, such as bags, drift just above the bottom until they are partially or completely buried, or disintegrate into smaller fragments.



“We have also found evidence of the boats’ dumping of bags full of rubbish, as revealed by the pile-up of different types of waste followed by an almost rectilinear furrow," Canals continued.



"Unfortunately, as far as the Mediterranean is concerned, it would not be wrong to say that ‘not a single inch of it is clean.'"



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-debris-transport-across-the-sea">Debris transport across the sea</h2>



Canals noted that the Calypso Deep is a closed depression, which favors the accumulation of debris inside it. He pointed out that the weak currents in the trench also facilitate the deposition of light debris at the bottom.



Floating debris originates mostly in the southern Ionian Sea or further south, and drifting eddies bring it toward the Calypso Deep.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/marine-litter-debris_bottom-seafloor_Mediterranean-Sea_montage_credit-Caladan-Oceanic_1m.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/marine-litter-debris_bottom-seafloor_Mediterranean-Sea_montage_credit-Caladan-Oceanic_1s.webp" alt="The debris identified by the international team in the Calypso Deep warns of the need to implement global policy actions to reduce ocean waste, as well as to encourage changes in citizens’ consumption habits and waste reduction in order to protect seas and oceans around the world. Credit: Caladan Oceanic" class="wp-image-1962233"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The debris identified by the international team in the Calypso Deep warns of the need to implement global policy actions to reduce ocean waste, as well as to encourage changes in citizens’ consumption habits and waste reduction in order to protect seas and oceans around the world. Credit: Caladan Oceanic</figcaption></figure>



“When these eddies are located over the Calypso Trench, some debris tends to fall slowly to the bottom, aided by degradation mechanisms and ballasting processes that increase its density," explained Canals 



"Surface currents can also transport debris from the Adriatic Sea to the north, through the Strait of Otranto, and from the waters off north-western Greece."



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-technology-to-explore-the-abyss">Technology to explore the abyss</h2>



Investigating such extreme depths demands cutting-edge tools. In this case, the Limiting Factor submarine, built by Triton Submarines, allowed a small crew of two to descend. 



Moving at about 1.8 kilometers (1.1 miles) per hour to obtain clear images, the Limiting Factor covered roughly 650 meters (0.4 miles) in a straight line over a 43-minute window on the bottom.&nbsp;



“On each dive, more time is usually spent descending and ascending the vehicle back to the surface than inspecting the bottom. Each complete dive usually takes a few hours,” Canals noted.



The expedition revealed no substantial impact on local marine life, likely due to the area’s low biodiversity. 



Only a few species - namely, the fish Coryphaenoides mediterraneus and the crustacean Acanthephyra eximia - appeared in the footage. 



“However, in places with more <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/world-ocean-day-a-unified-approach-to-protect-biodiversity/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">biodiversity</a>, there are different types of interaction between the debris deposited on the bottom and the organisms, such as ghost fishing, burial, hooking or ingestion, but also the use of debris as a substrate where animals can grow, hide or lay their eggs,” Canals said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mediterranean-s-pollution-problem">Mediterranean’s pollution problem</h2>



Scientists first documented trash on the ocean floor in 1975, in the North Atlantic’s Skagerrak Strait. Areas like canyons and seamounts are especially prone to accumulating garbage, either from settling, burial, or erosion processes. 



Now, the Mediterranean ranks among the worst-affected seas. In 2021, research identified the Strait of Messina as the global hot spot for seafloor litter. 



This highlights broader concerns about intensifying human influence on an enclosed region subject to heavy maritime traffic and fishing.



“The Mediterranean is an enclosed sea, surrounded by humanity, with intense maritime traffic and widespread fishing activity," noted Canals. 



"The evidence provided by our research should shake up global efforts, and in particular in the Mediterranean, to mitigate waste dumping, especially plastics, in the natural environment and ultimately in the sea, in line with the <a href="https://www.unep.org/inc-plastic-pollution" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">UN Global Plastics Treaty</a> against plastic pollution, which is still pending approval."



Canals emphasized that the ocean floor is still largely unknown to society as a whole, which makes it difficult to raise social and political awareness about the conservation of these spaces. 



"It is necessary to make a joint effort between scientists, communicators, journalists, the media, influencers and other people with social impact. The problem is there, and it has an enormous scope, even if it is not directly visible. We should not forget about it."



Details of the study are published in the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X25000852?via%3Dihub" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Marine Pollution Bulletin</a>.



Image Credit: Caladan Oceanic



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Human trash has found its way to the deepest parts of Earth's seas and oceans

Human litter has now infiltrated the deepest parts of Earth's oceans and seas. Debris and trash produced by human activity was spotted at a depth of 5,112 meters (3.2 miles) in the Mediterranean Sea. The site, which is the deepest point in the Mediterranean, is known as Calypso Deep, and is located off the south-western coast of Greece in the Ionian Sea. In a new study, researchers have identified 167 objects at the bottom. Of these, 148 were clearly marine debris, while 19 were believed to be...

There have been a number of proposed solutions for combating greenhouse gas emissions including <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/atmospheric-aerosols-can-significantly-cool-down-climate/">spraying aerosols in the atmosphere</a>, planting more trees to help store more carbon, and even taxing carbon emissions. 

One organization, the <a href="https://www.4p1000.org/">4 per 1000 Initiative</a>, argues that the answer to mitigating climate change and increasing carbon storage lies in the soil. 

The name 4 per 1000 has to do with the organization’s main proposal of increasing carbon storage in the top part of the soil by four parts per thousand. 

Not only would this stop atmospheric CO2 levels from growing, but the organization says that it will also help ensure global food security. 

Members of the 4 per 1000 initiative recently published a commentary piece in the journal  Nature which offers an eight-step plan for increasing soil carbon levels and improving soil fertility.

The article was published ahead of the annual climate summit of the <a href="https://unfccc.int/">United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change</a> and the first <a href="https://unfccc.int/files/meetings/bonn_nov_2017/application/pdf/cp23_auv_agri.pdf">Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture</a> workshop in the hopes of helping to inform the summit’s discussions and climate negations. 

“Taking steps to increase global soil carbon requires multi-stakeholder collaboration at the science-policy interface,” said Cornelia Rumpel, the lead author. “4p1000 initiative, which has 281 partners from 39 countries, is showing how such collaboration can be used to address sustainable development goals in an integrated way.”

The soil holds twice the amount of carbon as plants and trees and two to three times more CO2 than the atmosphere. 

Soil is a crucial carbon sink and rich, fertilized soil is vital for plant and crop growth. However, one-third of the world’s soils are degraded which is rapidly adding more carbon to the atmosphere. The authors of the report outline eight steps to increase soil carbon storage.

The first and perhaps most important step is stopping soil degradation by conserving and protecting the world’s peatlands. 

Next, the authors discuss the importance of storing carbon and finding which local practices best promote carbon uptake. 

Once these practices have been chosen, the third step is monitoring, reporting and tracking how well the world's soils are storing carbon. 

The eight-step plan also calls for the use of advanced technology to improve carbon soil monitoring, testing different strategies to ensure optimal carbon uptake is reached for different regions, and involving the community. 

Step seven is to coordinate policies to make sure soil carbon policies match up with the Paris Agreement goals and step eight involves supporting all soil endeavors when possible. 

“Challenges to achieving large-scale carbon sequestration include nutrient limits, inadequate farmer incentives and lack of organic matter in some places, but even impacts at lesser scales will benefit the climate and food security,” said Lini Wollenberg, a co-author of the commentary article. “The potential benefits are too large to ignore.” 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com </a>Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Photo: <a href="https://flic.kr/p/ojpnem">C Schubert, CCAFS</a>

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Increasing soil carbon storage can help combat climate change

There have been a number of proposed solutions for combating...

Researchers at the <a href="https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/">University of Liverpool</a> are reporting that prescribed burning, if managed properly, is not as harmful to peat growth as previously believed. In fact, prescribed burning can lead to multiple positive outcomes if the technique is sensibly rotated, according to the study. 

Prescribed burning is a highly controversial technique where fires are set intentionally to manage the land. While the method is used around the world, it is met with criticism by conservationists who believe that prescribed burning stops <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/peatlands-carbon-sinks-emit/">peat growth</a>, reduces carbon capture, and reduces the amount of peat-forming species such as Sphagnum mosses.

For their investigation into the effects of using this method, the scientists analyzed data from a long-term ecological experiment at Moor House National Nature Reserve. The reserve contained areas of moorland that either only been burned in 1954 or had been burned every ten or twenty years since 1954. These regions were compared with control areas that had not been burned since the 1920s.

The study was led by Emeritus Professor Rob Marrs from the University's Department of Earth, Oceans &amp; Ecological Sciences.

“The research, which was truly interdisciplinary and combined several scientific approaches, centred on a long-term, replicated experiment at Moor House National Nature Reserve,” said Professor Marrs. “As part of that experiment the moorland was subjected to four burning treatments to determine the change in composition of the main species. The value of long-term experiments is that they allow new hypotheses can be tested which were unforeseen at the start.”

The analysis of changes in vegetation composition showed that regions which had not been exposed to any prescribed burns were dominated by low-level peat-forming species with less useful species such as Sphagnum mosses and cotton grasses that promote peat growth.


Study co-author Professor Chiverrell led the team in collecting stratigraphical data on the rate of peat and carbon accumulation. The experts measured numerous peat profiles sampled from the different prescribed burn areas.


“This is first time that stratigraphical techniques have been used within the structure of a designed experiment,” said Professor Chiverrell. “Our data show only limited reduction of peat and carbon accumulation with increased burning treatments. Crucially, there was continued peat and carbon accumulation even in the areas that had undergone the regime of most frequent burning.”

When the researchers modeled how prescribed burning may influence the potential damage caused by severe wildfires, they found that the proper implementation of this technique can reduce fire fuel loads, protect against more severe ecosystem damage, allow better access for fighting wildfires, and promote faster recovery after a wildfire event. 

“Our study produced surprising results that are the opposite of what many conservationists had previously thought,” said Professor Marrs. “It showed that the areas which had not been burnt since 1954 ended up with more heather and less peat forming species but the most frequently burned treatment had more of these species and did not stop carbon accumulation. We advise that prescribed burning be used in some areas within a moorland management plan to minimize fuel loads.”

“This work is unique because it uses stratigraphical methods, usually used to measure change over millennia, to assess recent environmental changes within a relatively long-term manipulative field experiment.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/ngeo">Nature Geoscience</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Prescribed burns can help peatlands when managed properly

Researchers at the University of Liverpool are reporting that prescribed...

Until recently, the government of Brazil had allowed settlers into parts of the Amazon region only with an agreement that 80% of their land will remain undeveloped under the Brazil’s Forest Act.  The law was revised in Brazil in 2012, allowing 50% of the land to be developed if the state government protects 65% of its public land. <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/11/brazil-could-lose-nepal-size-area-of-rainforest-due-to-policy-revision/">Mongabay</a> reports that a new study released in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-018-0171-4">Nature Sustainability</a> shows that the change in regulation opens up an enormous amount of land.  All together a piece roughly the size of Ireland, could now be up for development in the Amazon.

6.5 to 15.4 million hectares of private land previously required to be protected is now threatened with deforestation.  Most of the forest threatened by this change in policy is also primary forest, that is forest that is already least disturbed.  This amounts to 1.2% to 2.8% of the whole Amazon rainforest, perhaps the greatest tropical rainforest left on Earth and certainly the largest.  Brazil could be at a turning point in regards to their wild lands, the Amazon in particular. The change was recently upheld by a court decision in Brazil’s highest court.  

The change also extends amnesty to illegal forest operations prior to 2008 <a href="http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/brazil_forest_code_law.cfm">WWF</a> reports.  Some of the areas now open to legal deforestation were previously declared to steep for development.  The deforestation of especially hilly or steep areas is especially problematic because it can speed erosion not only destroying land but also polluting water sources with severe runoff.  <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-43236709">BBC</a> reports that although amnesty is extended, in theory larger land owners might still be required to replant some of their land or conserve the same amount elsewhere.  The change in law was a boon to agribusiness in the Amazon.

<a href="https://theconversation.com/for-cattle-farmers-in-the-brazilian-amazon-money-cant-buy-happiness-85349">The Conversation</a> reports that the Amazon is actually home to world’s fastest growing tropical agricultural region.  In fact, the biggest use of land in the Brazilian Amazon is for cattle ranching. Land cleared for cattle is the largest cause of deforestation in the Amazon.  Land cleared to graze cattle deteriorates, with nutrients quickly washing out in the rain heavy Amazon. 

When the land is no longer useful for cattle grazing, ranchers move elsewhere to clear more land.  Even in areas where more sustainable agricultural practices could be used, ranching often persists due to perceived social advantages.  Like the western US, ranching in the Amazon seems to be romanticized. Nothing is so appealing to the rugged individualist as the idea of a cowboy on the prairie or a gaucho in the jungle.  According to <a href="https://theconversation.com/for-cattle-farmers-in-the-brazilian-amazon-money-cant-buy-happiness-85349">The Conversation</a>, soybean farming is four times more financially successful in Brazil than cattle ranching yet many choose ranching anyway.  It may be this impractical streak that is part of the driving force behind the change in law and in turn destruction of the Amazon.       

What complicates this story is the fact that the policy requiring landowners to set aside 80% of their land was never successfully implemented. 

The original law created in 1965 actually required only 50% of land to be set aside but was changed to 80% later, so this new change is more a return to the original law.  The sad truth is that never has someone been prosecuted under this law. The law hasn’t been enforced or challenged in court, so the change is really only a change on paper anyway.  Still the change in law shows a shift in popular opinion and public policy away from protection of the Amazon and other land in Brazil. 

Among other things, the change in law being upheld, especially with amnesty granted encourages not only legal deforestation but illegal as well, creating the impression that it’s easy to get away with.  Along with the change in laws, a change in politicians also pushes deforestation in the Amazon. 

As I reported <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/president-brazil-amazon-rainforest/">last month</a>, Brazil’s newly elected president, Jair Bolsonaro, is also a threat to the country’s rainforest and seems extremely unlikely to intercede on behalf of conservation.  <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/01/bolsonaro-environment-agriculture-ministries-amazon">The Guardian</a> reported after Bolsonaro’s election he still plans to combine the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of the Environment.  This is a move benefiting Brazil’s agribusiness and mining sectors, both strong supporters of Bolsonaro. Marina Silva, a former environment minister and presidential candidate, commented that this change will damage Brazil’s reputation in climate talks.  

Bolsonaro himself has been unsteady on his position to the Paris Climate Accord, flipping back and forth leaving some wondering about Brazil’s future in the talks.  Initially, Bolsonaro said he’d pull Brazil out of the Paris Climate Accord but then said he’d stay in if there was no restriction to the development of lands from the Andes through the Amazon to the Atlantic.  It seems like staying in the accord with no deforestation limits on such a huge expanse of land would only be lip service. Deforestation in the Amazon is proceeding as normal at breakneck speed. 52,000 square kilometers of Amazon rainforest is lost every year.  Since Europeans have arrived in South America and colonized it, there have been plans to cut the forest, to turn the area into farms and settlements. 

Francisco de Orellana was the first known person to navigate the whole of the Amazon River, dressed in clumsy Spanish armor and in a wooden boat.  It seems possible that Native Americans made the trip long before Orellana but we may never know. The journey cost Orellana the lives of many men, Spanish as well as enslaved natives.  The conquistador reported densities of people living in the Amazon that no one has seen since. The idea of cities, whole civilizations hidden in the jungle has long enticed explorers, some like Colonel Percy Fawcett were lost in the jungle and others simply gave up.  Misunderstandings of the realities in a place that offers life and death so freely have contributed to crazed attempts to colonize the Amazon before. In 1928, Henry Ford even attempted to build not only a latex facility but a utopian village in the Amazon rainforest, as reported in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/aug/19/lost-cities-10-fordlandia-failure-henry-ford-amazon">The Guardian</a>.  Henry Ford was even quoted as saying, 

“We are not going to South America to make money, but to help develop that wonderful and fertile land.”  

Today Fordlandia, Henry Ford’s utopia, is nothing but moldering ruins and a modest settlement of 3000 people living among ghosts.  The point of Fordlandia is that the Amazon isn’t easily molded to western civilization’s ideas. People can clear the jungle and put cattle on the land but it doesn’t mean they can do so forever.  It’s far easier to destroy the Amazon than to use it. 

--

By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

A massive part of the Amazon faces new deforestation threats

Until recently, the government of Brazil had allowed settlers into...

Over the past 50 years, freshwater streams and rivers in the United States have become saltier and more alkaline due to human activities. A recent study led by the <a href="https://www.umd.edu/">University of Maryland</a> (UMD) has found that fertilizers and other salty compounds are being heavily released into <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/freshwater-insects-eaten-microplastics/">waterways</a>, in an effect that the researchers refer to as the “freshwater salinization syndrome.”

The same team previously analyzed the local and regional consequences of freshwater salinization, and found that salty, alkaline freshwater can release a variety of chemicals, including toxic metals and harmful compounds from soils in drainage basins. The researchers suspect that many of these chemicals travel together throughout watersheds, forming “chemical cocktails” that are much more threatening to drinking water than individual contaminants.

The current investigation, which includes field observations from Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, emphasizes the urgent need for better pollution management strategies. Study lead author Sujay Kaushal is a professor of Geology at UMD.

“The bottom line of our findings is that when humans add salt to waterways, that salt also releases a lot of dangerous collateral chemicals,” said Professor Kaushal. “It's clear that regulatory agencies need to find new ways to address these 'chemical cocktails' released by saltier water, rather than looking at individual freshwater pollutants one by one.”

Salty, alkaline freshwater is already notorious for contaminating drinking water supplies, urban infrastructure, and natural ecosystems. In 2014, residents of Flint, Michigan, witnessed this type of pollution firsthand when the city switched its primary water source to the Flint River. The river contained a heavy concentration of salt and chemical treatments, which combined to make the water more corrosive and lead began to leach from water pipes. 

For the current study, the team analyzed existing data from rivers in the U.S., Europe, Canada, Russia, China, and Iran. Their findings suggest that freshwater salinization syndrome could be a global phenomenon, with the most conclusive evidence found in both U.S. and European rivers. The trends identified in the study can be traced back at least 50 years.

“Given what we are finding, I continue to be surprised by the scope and magnitude of the recent degradation of Earth's surface waters," said study co-author Gene Likens. “The formation of novel chemical cocktails is causing deterioration far beyond my expectations.”


Professor Kaushal added, “Looking at water quality data over several months in the winter, salt remains high and rarely has a chance to return to baseline before the next storm comes through and more salt is put on the roads.”

“This high salt load not only liberates metals and other contaminants, but there is also evidence that the initial salt pulse releases other salt ions from the streambed and soils, such as magnesium and potassium, which further contribute to keeping overall salt levels high.”

Study co-author Shahan Haq is a graduate student in the Geology program at UMD.

“To me, this study highlights the need to view salt as an emerging contaminant in freshwater,” said Haq. “Salt's ability to move heavy metals like copper from sediments into the water could have dangerous implications for our drinking water and could be toxic to wildlife. Our observations suggest that some rivers are already at risk, especially here in the eastern U.S. directly following road salt applications.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/">Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Joseph Galella/University of Maryland

US freshwater bodies are increasingly polluted by human activity

Over the past 50 years, freshwater streams and rivers in...

Blue whales have been changing their singing habits for years, and cracking sea ice may be behind it, a new study found.

Researchers studying whalesong found that male blue whales – females don’t sing – have been dropping their pitch little by little for decades. They’re not alone. Fin whales and Madagascar pygmy blue whales have also been lowering the pitch of their song, the scientists discovered. 

They suspect that the whales are singing less loudly, and the pitch drop is a consequence.

"We think it is something non-voluntary from the whale. Decrease the call intensity and it will decrease the call frequency, just because of the sound emission mechanism," lead Dr. Emmanuelle Leroy told <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/">Science Daily</a>.

The team discovered that blue whales’ pitch changes by season, getting higher during the summer months when sea ice is melting and cracking. But their pitch on average has been getting lower year over year, they said.

They were able to rule out noise pollution as the cause – unlike other oceans, human activity has dropped in the southern Indian Ocean – but did spot the correlation with ice breaking. There could be other explanations as well, the scientists noted. Whale populations have grown in the Indian Ocean in recent years, so they may simply not need to sing so loudly to be heard.

Blue whales and fin whales are some of the loudest and largest ocean mammals. Their songs can travel more than 1,000 miles, allowing them to communicate with one another over vast distances.

"The noise is related to the increasing number of free icebergs in summer. When the ice sometimes cracks, like when you put ice in your drink, it makes noise. This noise is really strong and will propagate over really long distances, so we can hear this noise at our northernmost site, up to 26 degrees south,” said Leroy, a researcher at the <a href="https://www.unsw.edu.au/">University of New South Wales</a> in Australia.

The team analyzed more than one million recordings of whale songs from the three species, collected over five years in the southern Indian Ocean.

They found that the calls of blue whales are dropping by about 1.4 hertz each year. Madagascar pygmy blue whales and fin whales are seeing similar drops.

The study has been published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/21699291">Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans</a>.

--

By <a href="mailto:kcathey@earth.com">Kyla Cathey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Blue whales are singing a different song, and scientists wonder why

Blue whales have been changing their singing habits for years,...

The seismic waves began on the morning of November 11 near the tiny French island of Mayotte, off the southeastern coast of Africa. 

They were so powerful, instrumentation picked up the tremors all over the world – Kenya, Chile, New Zealand, Hawaii and Canada. For 20 minutes, the seismic waves registered on earthquake-detecting equipment around the world.

This isn’t unusual in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/big-earthquakes-tremors-earth/">massive earthquakes</a> – but this time, no one reported feeling a thing.

In fact, if an earthquake follower on Twitter hadn’t spotted the unusual activity on the <a href="https://earthquake.usgs.gov/monitoring/seismograms">U.S. Geological Survey’s real-time seismogram displays</a>.

“I don't think I've seen anything like it,” Dr. Göran Ekström, a seismologist at <a href="https://www.columbia.edu/">Columbia University</a>, told <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/">National Geographic</a>.

That doesn’t mean that the seismic waves have an unusual or exotic origin, said Ekström, an expert in unusual earthquakes. 

But the behavior of the waves was strange as well. A normal earthquake, even a massive one, produces a “wave train” with a variety of frequencies. Primary and secondary seismic waves have a higher frequency, and they are followed by slow, low-frequency waves, Dr. Stephen Hicks of the <a href="https://www.southampton.ac.uk/">University of Southampton</a> said.

The Mayotte event didn’t have primary or secondary waves, though. It apparently produced only low-frequency surface waves.

The strange event on November 11 may be related to a series of quakes that have rattled Mayotte since May. Most of the tremors have originated just a few miles east of the November 11 epicenter.

Volcanologists suspect the series of quakes may be due to a new volcano forming near the tiny island of Mayotte. As for the November 11 event, a shifting of magma underground or a slow eruption may have produced a quake too “slow” to be detected by humans, but with seismic waves still visible on quake-monitoring equipment.

“The same deformation happens, but it doesn't happen as a jolt,” Ekström said.

Scientists are still investigating other possibilities.

--

By <a href="mailto:kcathey@earth.com">Kyla Cathey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Bizarre seismic waves have geologists stumped

The seismic waves began on the morning of November 11...

Environmental activists are up in arms after the Trump administration gave the nod to a planned seismic survey for oil and gas deposits in the Atlantic. 

Five companies will receive harassment authorizations needed to conduct a seismic survey from the <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/">National Marine Fisheries Service</a>, officials said Friday. They will still need to obtain individual permits from the <a href="https://www.boem.gov/">Bureau of Ocean Energy Management</a>, part of the <a href="https://www.doi.gov/">Department of the Interior</a>, before they can begin the survey, but those permits are expected to come through.

“President Trump is essentially giving these companies permission to harass, harm and possibly even kill marine life, including the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale — all in the pursuit of dirty and dangerous offshore oil,” Diane Hoskins of the conservation group <a href="https://oceana.org/">Oceana</a> told the <a href="https://www.ap.org/en-us/">Associated Press</a>.

More than 90 percent of coastal communities oppose offshore drilling, she added. East Coast lawmakers agree, saying that any offshore drilling could harm commercial fishing operations and tourism, a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/coastal-recreation-business/">huge business along the U.S. coasts</a>.

In a seismic survey, researchers use large compressed air guns to fire blasts into the ocean, then use seismic sensors to measure the sound waves that bounce back off the seabed. The data can be used to create details maps of the ocean floor.

Environmentalists say the noise from a seismic survey can disrupt ocean mammals’ ability to navigate the waters, causing dolphins and whales to beach themselves. Scientists have warned against the surveys in the past, stating that they can cause permanent damage to marine animals in the area.

But advocates say that seismic surveys are already being used to scout locations for offshore wind farms, as well as scientific research.

“These activities are exploration activities,” Nikki Martin, president of the <a href="https://www.iagc.org/">International Association of Geophysical Contractors</a>, told <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/">Bloomberg</a>. “The assessment of the resource is critical; it’s critical knowledge for the states and critical knowledge for the federal government in determining future decisions regarding offshore exploration and development.”

The <a href="https://www.api.org/">American Petroleum Institute</a>, a lobbying group for the oil and gas industries, has praised the administration for moving forward with the harassment authorizations.

If the final approvals with the Department of the Interior go through, the seismic survey would be the first and most extensive of its kind in decades.

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By <a href="mailto:kcathey@earth.com">Kyla Cathey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Seismic survey for oil, gas slated for Atlantic

Environmental activists are up in arms after the Trump administration...

Snowpack refers to the accumulation of snow over the winter months that gets “packed down” by its own weight, and it plays an important role in insulating forest trees from freezing temperatures.

In mountainous regions, snowpack replenishes <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/fresh-water-stored-snowpack/">local watersheds</a> in the spring, but warmer winters due to climate change are causing less and less snowpack accumulation each year. 

Researchers from the <a href="http://www.asrc.cuny.edu/">Advanced Science Research Center at the City University of New York</a> conducted a five-year study and found that future climate change could reduce snowpack in hardwood forests by 95 percent at the end of the 21st century. 

Without sufficient snowpack cover, trees are unable to store carbon dioxide as effectively or take up nutrients from the soil. 

The study was published in the journal Global Change Biology and the results show how detrimental snowpack loss will be for hardwood forests in the northeastern United States. 

“We know global warming is causing the winter snowpack to develop later and melt earlier,” Andrew Reinmann, the first author of the study. “Our study advances our understanding of the long-term effects of this trend on northern hardwood forests--which are critical to North America's environmental health and several industries. The experiments we conducted suggest snowpack declines result in more severe soil freezing that damages and kills tree roots, increases losses of nutrients from the forest and significantly reduces growth of the iconic sugar maple trees.”

The researchers analyzed six decades of snowpack data and conducted a five-year-long field experiment in Hubbard Brook’s Forest, a research forest in New Hampshire that spans 7,800 acres. 

Every year between 2008 and 2012, a team of researchers would remove snowpack from several designated plots during the first four to six weeks of winter. 

The researchers would then monitor and compare tree growth, nutrient levels in the soil, and soil temperatures near the removed snowpack plots and areas that had been left alone. 

Frost was able to penetrate deep within the soil, reaching depths of 30 centimeters or more, where the snowpack had been removed. In the areas where snowpack was left to accumulate, soil frost only measured five centimeters deep. 

The loss of insulating snow damaged tree roots, reduced nutrient uptake by the trees and resulted in stunted tree growth. There was also less nitrogen and insect diversity in the soil itself compared to the control plots. 

Tree growth near the areas where snowpack had been removed declined by over 40 percent, and when the researchers let the snowpack resume its normal accumulations, the trees were still unable to recover. 

“These experiments demonstrate the significant impact that changes in winter climate have on a variety of environmental factors, including forest growth, carbon sequestration, soil nutrients and air and water quality,” said Reinmann. “Left unabated, these changes in climate could have a detrimental impact on the forests of the region and the livelihoods of the people who rely on them for recreation and industries such as tourism, skiing, snowmobiling, timber and maple syrup production.”

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By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Image Credit: Pamela Templer

Lighter snowpack can hinder tree growth, limit carbon storage

Snowpack refers to the accumulation of snow over the winter...

A team of experts at the European Commission’s <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/info/departments/joint-research-centre_en">Joint Research Centre</a> set out to get a better understanding of co-extinctions, which occur when the disappearance of a host species endangers other species that depend on it. The researchers found that climate change will greatly increase the risk of an “extinction domino effect” that could ultimately wipe out every species on our planet. 

While co-extinction may be contributing to the escalating <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/protecting-biodiversity-political-action/">biodiversity</a> crisis, the phenomenon is difficult to examine or analyze. The researchers simulated 2,000 virtual versions of Earth, linking various animal and plant species in a global food web.

The virtual Earths were then exposed to simulations of extreme climate change that involved either global warming or a “nuclear winter,” which is a time of progressive cooling that would follow a nuclear detonation or an asteroid impact. 

Next, the experts tracked the loss of species diversity under two different scenarios all the way up to the total annihilation of life on Earth. 

In the first scenario, they only considered extinctions that resulted from temperatures that were too hot for species to survive. In the second scenario, they took into account the loss of species from high temperatures, as well as the co-extinctions that would result.

The team compared the outcomes of both scenarios and found that by not accounting for interdependencies among species, the mass extinctions that could result from climate change are greatly understated.

Study co-author Professor Bradshaw of <a href="https://www.flinders.edu.au/">Flinders University</a> explained, “What we were trying to test is whether the variable tolerances to extreme global heating or cooling by different species are enough to explain overall extinction rates.”

“But because all species are connected in the web of life, our paper demonstrates that even the most tolerant species ultimately succumb to extinction when the less-tolerant species on which they depend disappear.”

“Failing to take into account these co-extinctions therefore underestimates the rate and magnitude of the loss of entire species from events like climate change by up to 10 times.”

According to the researchers, the end of life on Earth is the worst case scenario, but cascading co-extinctions will dramatically increase the dangers of climate change. They determined that just 5 to 6 degrees of warming could be enough to destroy most species. 

Study lead author Dr. Giovanni Strona said, “Even the most resilient species will inevitably fall victim to the synergies among extinction drivers as extreme stresses drive ecosystems to collapse.”

The researchers concluded, “By comparing scenarios of extinctions based only on species’ environmental tolerances with others accounting also for co-extinctions, we show that neglecting to consider the cascading effect of biodiversity loss leads to a large overestimation of the robustness of planetary life to global change.”

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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 

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Climate change could trigger a cascade of extinctions domino effect

A team of experts at the European Commission’s Joint Research...

A new report from the <a href="https://www.wmo.int/">World Meteorological Organization</a> (WMO) has revealed that 2018 is set to be the fourth hottest year on record. According to the experts, 20 of the last 22 years have been the warmest in recorded history.

The study authors pointed out, “The past four years - 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 - are also the four warmest years in the series.” WMO chief Petteri Taalas told reporters in Geneva that the “warming trend is obvious and continuing.”

Estimates from the WMO showed that the planet was nearly 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, or one degree Celsius, above pre-industrial levels for the first ten months of 2018. This conclusion was drawn from five independent data sets.

If the average temperature continues to rise at this rate, the world will be 3.5 degrees Celsius warmer by the end of the century, which is far beyond the 1.5C and 2C climate targets established by the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/paris-agreement-climate-goals/">Paris Agreement</a>.


“We are not on track to meet climate change targets and rein in temperature increases,” said Taalas. “Greenhouse gas concentrations are once again at record levels and if the current trend continues we may see temperature increases 3.5C (6.3F) by the end of the century.”

“If we exploit all known fossil fuel resources, the temperature rise will be considerably higher. It is worth repeating once again that we are the first generation to fully understand climate change and the last generation to be able to do something about it.”

WMO Deputy Secretary-General Elena Manaenkova said, “These are more than just numbers. Every fraction of a degree of warming makes a difference to human health and access to food and fresh water, to the extinction of animals and plants, to the survival of coral reefs and marine life.”

“It makes a difference to economic productivity, food security, and to the resilience of our infrastructure and cities. It makes a difference to the speed of glacier melt and water supplies, and the future of low-lying islands and coastal communities. Every extra bit matters.”

The WMO report is part of a collection of research that will inform UN climate change negotiations at the COP24 summit in Poland from December 2-14.
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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

2018 is on track to be the fourth hottest year in history

A new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has...

President Donald Trump has made some undeniably galling claims about climate change over the years. 

From his assertion that climate change was a <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/265895292191248385">hoax created by the Chinese government</a>, to his comments on <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/946531657229701120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E946531657229701120&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2017%2F12%2F28%2Fclimate%2Ftrump-tweet-global-warming.html">cold weather snaps</a> somehow proving that climate change wasn’t real, the President has stubbornly stood by his denial of climate change science.

Then, as we <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-american-economy/">reported last week</a>, Trump denied the findings of a shocking climate report released by his own government.

This week, after being asked about the Congressionally mandated climate assessment, the President said he didn’t believe it, even going so far as to suggest that he was too intelligent to accept the report’s findings. 

“One of the problems that a lot of people like myself, we have very high levels of intelligence, but we’re not necessarily such believers,” Trump told the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-slams-fed-chair-questions-climate-change-and-threatens-to-cancel-putin-meeting-in-wide-ranging-interview-with-the-post/2018/11/27/4362fae8-f26c-11e8-aeea-b85fd44449f5_story.html?utm_term=.ff696b46a719&amp;wpisrc=nl_headlines&amp;wpmm=1">Washington Post</a>. “You look at our air and our water, and it’s right now at a record clean.”

What is confusing about the President’s comments on the new report is that a group of federal agencies conducted the assessment and the findings focus heavily on the economic ramifications of climate change. 

However, as the President stubbornly refutes even the slightest mention of human-made climate change, a new poll shows more and more people agree with the realities of climate change. 

The new Monmouth University poll found that 78 percent of the general population agrees that climate is happening, compared to 70 percent three years ago. The poll even found that 64 percent of Republicans think that climate change is real, compared to 49 percent three years ago. 

According to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/29/even-republicans-at-odds-with-trumps-climate-posture-poll-finds">The Guardian</a> which reported on the survey results, the poll shows that the President and his administration are now at odds with the majority of people who understand the ramifications of climate change, including members of the President’s own party and base. 

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By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

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Poll: Majority of Republicans break with Trump on climate change

President Donald Trump has made some undeniably galling claims about...

Experts are warning that there is a very good chance an <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/el-nino-unpredictable-2/">El Niño</a> weather event will develop over the next few months, which would disrupt weather patterns across the planet. The United Nation’s <a href="https://www.wmo.int/">World Meteorological Organization</a> (WMO) has determined that there is a 75 to 80 percent chance than an El Niño weather system will form by February of 2019. 

An El Niño is a complex series of climate changes that begins with the development of unseasonably warm ocean waters off of northern Peru and Ecuador. If the system does emerge, it is not expected to have the intensity of the 2016 event that caused the hottest year in history. 

According to the meteorologists, the event is projected to cause sea surface temperatures to rise by 0.8 to 1.2 degrees Celsius above average. If the system is stronger than a anticipated, temperatures could rise by 1.5 degrees Celsius or more above average.

Maxx Dilley, the director of the WMO’s Climate Prediction and Adaptation branch, said in a statement:

“The forecast El Niño is not expected to be as powerful as the event in 2015-2016, which was linked with droughts, flooding and coral bleaching in different parts of the world.”

“Even so, it can still significantly affect rainfall and temperature patterns in many regions, with important consequences to agricultural and food security sectors, and for management of water resources and public health, and it may combine with long-term climate change to boost 2019 global temperatures.”

According to the experts at the WMO, a better understanding of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is making these events easier to predict. If the El Niño develops, the researchers say there is a 60 percent chance it will persist until April of 2019.

“It is important to stress that these are typical effects - not specific forecasts - and that actual conditions vary according to the strength and timing of the El Niño event,” said the meteorologists. “Other factors can also have an important influence on seasonal climate.”
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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 

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An El Niño event Is highly likely to develop by February

Experts are warning that there is a very good chance...

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.igb.illinois.edu/">Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology</a> reveals how scientists can modify common crops like soybean, rice, and wheat to protect them from heat stress.



“We need to double crop production by 2050 to feed a growing global population, and not only are we not on track to do that, but climate change is further complicating things,” said Amanda Cavanagh, a lecturer at the University of Essex. 



The study is part of Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE), an international research project that aims to develop food crops that turn the sun’s energy into food more efficiently.



“Using an engineering approach we designed multiple alternative metabolic pathways to photorespiration. Testing them in the field showed increases in productivity which led Amanda to significantly move the project forward by showing our engineered plants can withstand pretty extreme temperature stress,” said study co-author and RIPE researcher Paul South.&nbsp;



“As the climate changes and temperature stresses increase the pressure on our global food supply, farmers will need every tool available including engineering approaches like the synthetic biology used here to maintain safe and productive harvests.”



The experts tested plants modified to have more efficient photorespiration to see if they were better adapted to warmer temperatures.&nbsp;



The team found that the engineered plants produced 26 percent more biomass than the wild-type plants exposed to the same temperatures, and had 15 percent less yield loss under the higher temperatures.



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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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



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Designing crops that can beat the heat

[sendtonews key="QGPzYnXEtN-1712599-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from Carl...

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes the first comprehensive estimate of carbon density in the Saharan, Sahel, and Sudanian zones of Africa. In an effort to measure the amount of carbon stored across these drylands, a team of scientists used high-resolution satellite images and artificial intelligence to map nearly 10 billion individual trees. 



"The high spatial resolution (50 cm) combined with AI and field measurements used in this study is key to improving tree inventories in drylands," said Pierre Hiernaux, a French researcher working for NASA. "The ever-increasing availability of very high-resolution satellite imagery will make it possible to assess carbon pools and their dynamics at the individual tree level on a global scale."



"This study is exceptional because it is pioneering a type of approach that will revolutionize the monitoring of trees and forests on a global scale: in the short term, it will be possible to map the world's trees from the centre of the Amazon to our schoolyards," said <a href="https://www.inrae.fr/en">INRAE</a> researcher Jean-Pierre Wigneron.



"Many fields of application will become much more efficient and accurate, such as tracking carbon stocks, biodiversity, monitoring logging and protection against illegal forest degradation, in near real time.”



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

[sendtonews key="EjmSP20gQK-2593093-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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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 



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Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

[sendtonews key="uV9Lh2fQbV-1760058-12187" type="single"] Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky" Today’s...

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> features a visual dataset of.methane emissions from wetlands across the globe. Atmospheric methane levels have reached record highs in recent years, and wetlands are a major source of these emissions.&nbsp;



"Methane is an important greenhouse gas that contributes substantially to global warming. On a molecule by molecule basis, methane is much more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, the main driver of warming," says NASA.



"Though human activities, including agriculture, oil and natural gas production and use, and waste disposal, collectively contribute the majority of methane to the atmosphere, about a third of total methane emissions comes from wetlands."&nbsp;



According to NASA, understanding methane emissions from wetlands and other natural sources is critically important for scientists and policymakers who are working to combat climate change by reducing emissions from human activities.



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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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



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Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

[sendtonews key="f8fukm28Vz-2491833-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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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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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

[sendtonews key="0879czfG3k-1785905-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from NASA...

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes how record-breaking heat expressed itself around the world in 2022.



Scientists have determined that 2022 was the 5th warmest year since 1880. Furthermore, the last nine consecutive years have been the warmest on record.



From devastating floods and wildfires to natural disasters like Hurricane Ian, 2022 showed us yet again how a warming climate affects people across the globe.&nbsp;



"As we look back at 20:22 and years past, we see that each year we better understand the challenges we face and how important it is to meet them," says NASA.



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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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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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 how Earth is unique in our solar system for its ability to sustain liquid water on its surface. But now, the water cycle is shifting as the climate warms, and scientists must find ways to predict how these changes will affect water availability.



Overall, 96 percent of Earth's water is saltwater, and nearly all of freshwater is found in ice and groundwater. These sources of water are linked as it passes through solid, liquid and gas phases.



In a warmer climate, the water cycle will be transformed. It will be easier for water to evaporate and form clouds, and storms will become more frequent and intense. Some regions will get too much water, while others will be left without enough water. In addition, soil moisture will be lost - which threatens food security.



Scientists are using satellite data from over the last 40 years to track changes that are happening in the water cycle. This will ultimately help us prepare for extreme events and better manage our water resources, according to ESA.



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.

Tracking changes in Earth's water cycle

[sendtonews key="fxH3eJHEkQ-2010196-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

Saturn,-,High,Resolution,3d,Images,Presents,Planets,Of,The

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a> features images of Saturn from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The photographs capture the start of the mysterious "spoke season" on Saturn - when unexplained features appear on its rings. 



According to NASA, both the cause of the spokes and their seasonal variability have yet to be fully explained by planetary scientists.



"Like Earth, Saturn is tilted on its axis and therefore has four seasons, though because of Saturn's much larger orbit, each season lasts approximately seven Earth years. Equinox occurs when the rings are tilted edge-on to the Sun," explains NASA.



"The spokes disappear when it is near summer or winter solstice on Saturn. (When the Sun appears to reach either its highest or lowest latitude in the northern or southern hemisphere of a planet.) As the autumnal equinox of Saturn's northern hemisphere on May 6, 2025, draws near, the spokes are expected to become increasingly prominent and observable."



Experts believe that the spokes may be a product of the planet's variable magnetic field. When magnetic fields interact with solar wind, an electrically charged environment is created. This phenomenon is visible on Earth as the northern lights.&nbsp;



"Scientists think that the smallest, dust-sized icy ring particles can become charged as well, which temporarily levitates those particles above the rest of the larger icy particles and boulders in the rings," says NASA.



The spokes were first observed in the early 1980s by NASA's Voyager mission. Depending on the angle of the rings, the spokes can appear dark or light.



"Thanks to Hubble's OPAL program, which is building an archive of data on the outer solar system planets, we will have longer dedicated time to study Saturn’s spokes this season than ever before," said NASA senior planetary scientist Amy Simon, head of the Hubble Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program.



"Despite years of excellent observations by the Cassini mission, the precise beginning and duration of the spoke season is still unpredictable, rather like predicting the first storm during hurricane season."



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.

Mysterious "spoke season" captured on Saturn

[sendtonews key="Ccjk8KEMzv-2550719-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

Closeup,Of,Fresh,Green,The,Napier,Bush,Grass,As,Animal

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="http://www.ntu.edu.sg/">NTU Singapore</a> reveals that some plants can remove toxic heavy metals from soil.&nbsp;



The researchers analyzed samples of various tropical plant species to test for levels of heavy metals and metalloids. The study showed that there are existing plants with high levels of these contaminants, which means that these species are great candidates for drawing pollutants out of the soil.&nbsp;



Among the plants examined in the study, 12 species had accumulated several types of heavy metals and metalloids. These plants are widely available, including species that are native to Singapore.



“In a small nation like Singapore, land may be repurposed to support new development plans, so it is important that we have a green and sustainable way to remediate land that is contaminated," said Professor Lam Yeng Ming.



"We set out to uncover how to better make use of tropical plants to do phytoremediation and through advanced characterization techniques, we showed how some of these tropical plant species can be an environmentally friendly and literally a 'green' way to remove contaminants in soil."&nbsp;



"Phytoremediation also has benefits of cost effectiveness, simplicity of management, aesthetic advantages, and long-term applicability and sustainability. The strategy prevents erosion and metal leaching by stabilizing or accumulating heavy metals, so that helps reduce the risk of contaminant spread.”



Video Credit: NTU Singapore



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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.

Plants help remove heavy metals from contaminated soil

[sendtonews key="6SdlLLbt0t-1988946-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from NTU...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> describes why herbicides are not as effective in killing weeds anymore. In the 20th century, chemical companies developed thousands of herbicides. The most commonly used herbicide was glyphosate, which was introduced in 1974.



Over the past few decades, dozens of species of weeds have evolved resistance to glyphosate. Depending on the site of action, the part of the plant that an herbicide interacts with, weeds may even be resistant to herbicides that have not been developed yet.&nbsp;



With increasing resistance to glyphosate and other herbicides, weeds are - once again - becoming a major concern for farmers.&nbsp;



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.

Weeds are becoming increasingly resistant to herbicides

[sendtonews key="gRpsplpwpe-2251464-12187" 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.jpl.nasa.gov/">NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory</a> (JPL) describes a dust storm on Mars that was nearly twice the size of the United States. As the storm covered the southern hemisphere of the planet, some of NASA’s explorers had to delay their normal activities.



NASA’s Insight lander put itself in a "safe mode" for 11 days to conserve battery power because solar power was disrupted by the dust. The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter postponed flights until conditions improved.



"A fleet of NASA orbiters monitor Martian dust storms like this one and serve as lifelines to Earth by relaying data from the rovers and lander on the ground back to the team. This includes the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MAVEN, and Odyssey," reports JPL.



"Dust storms like this recent one start close to the ground and are spread by wind as they rise – warming the cold Martian atmosphere."



The images in the video were captured by NASA’s Curiosity as the dust rolled in. A fleet of orbiters monitored the dust storm from above, relaying data from Mars’ explorers back to scientists on Earth.



Video &amp; Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS



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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.

NASA monitors giant dust storms on Mars

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="http://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz. This strait provides the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean.



Qeshm is separated from the Iranian coast by the Clarence Strait, also known as Khuran.&nbsp;The Hara Forest Protected Area is a network of shallow waterways and forest located between the island and the mainland. This protected region is home to sea turtles, snakes, and more than 150 species of migrating birds.



Qeshm is famous for its wide range of&nbsp;ecotourist&nbsp;attractions, such as the&nbsp;Hara marine forests. According to environmentalists, about 1.5 percent of the world birds and 25 percent of Iran's native <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/female-hummingbirds-avoid-sexual-harassment-by-looking-like-males/">birds</a> annually migrate to the forests, which are the first national geo park in Iran.



Tourists are also drawn to the island to see an age-old Portuguese&nbsp;fort, historic mosques, the&nbsp;Seyyed Mozaffar&nbsp;and&nbsp;Bibi Maryam&nbsp;shrines, and the "Valley of Stars."



The average temperature on the island is 81 degress and the region is often hot and humid. From June to August, the island is described as being oppressively hot. The ideal time to visit is during the winter season. 



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.

Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Inhambane Bay in southeast Mozambique.&nbsp;



"Inhambane Bay is a deep inlet into which the small Mutamba River flows," says ESA. "On one side of the bay lies the historical city of Inhambane, capital of the Inhambane Province, while the sister city of Maxixe, the economic capital of Inhambane, sits across from it. The province is the second largest grower of cashews, after Nampula, and it also produces coconut and citrus fruits."



The beaches of Barra and Tofo are popular with tourists. There are also coral reefs along the long coastline of Inhambane, making it an ideal destination for scuba diving and snorkeling.



"Mozambique’s extensive coastline heightens the country’s vulnerability to tropical cyclones that develop in the Indian Ocean as well as storm surge flooding," says ESA.



"More than half of the population lives in low lying coastal areas, putting communities at risk. Inhambane Bay was dangerously close to where Cyclone Idai made landfall in 2019 causing widespread destruction to the country."



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.

Inhambane Bay in southeast Mozambique

[sendtonews key="yPSXGZek1I-2312529-12187" 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>&nbsp;features the Kangerlussuaq Glacier, one of the largest tidewater outlet glaciers in Greenland. The glacier is located on the east coast of the Greenland ice sheet.



As human-induced climate change continues to drive up temperatures, global ice loss is accelerating at an alarming rate. ESA reports that, over the past decade alone, 3.5 trillion tons of ice have melted from the Greenland ice sheet. This is enough to cover the UK with meltwater 15 meters deep.



Based on satellite imagery, researchers determined that Kangerlussuaq entered a new phase of rapid retreat and acceleration in 2017. In their study, published in <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feart.2019.00123/full">Frontiers in Earth Science</a>,&nbsp; the experts report that the glacier's ice front is now at its most retreated position since the early 20th century.



"Given Kangerlussuaq’s previous impacts on both the magnitude and pattern of ice sheet wide mass loss, we predict that its new phase of retreat, acceleration and thinning will markedly enhance the south-east region’s contribution to increasing discharge from the ice sheet," wrote the study authors.&nbsp;&nbsp;



"More broadly, accurate forecasting of the ice sheet’s contribution to sea level rise will require a deeper understanding of, and responses to, these non-linear ice dynamic processes."



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.

Kangerlussuaq Glacier 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 the complex relationship between ocean and climate. ESA's Climate Change Initiative will help us understand how oceans influence the climate and how climate change is impacting the oceans.&nbsp;



"Earth’s oceans are huge heat stores, soaking up 93% of the excess heat from human activity over the past 70 years. Ocean currents redistribute heat around the planet, from the Equator to the poles. Where this ocean heat goes influences weather patterns and regional climate," explains ESA.



"As well as absorbing heat, oceans are a natural carbon sink, absorbing a quarter of carbon dioxide emissions from human activity. This has led to the acidification of ocean water, threating marine life."



The amount of heat and carbon dioxide soaked up by the ocean depends on specific variables, including phytoplankton, temperatures, waves, salinity, and ice cover. Satellites can be used to measure these variables from space.



"From their unique vantage point, satellites provide key information for understanding the complexities of our planet and monitoring environmental issues," says ESA.



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.

Ocean heat influences regional climate

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes the importance of monitoring the shape of the sea surface, which is constantly changing. These observations have many applications, such as ship routing, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-modem-ocean-is-a-tough-place-for-whales-to-survive/">ocean</a> current forecasting, and debris tracking.



"A project supported by the Discovery element of ESA’s Basic Activities recently investigated a new technique to measure sea surface topography very precisely," reports ESA.



"The technique involves looking at satellite navigation (GNSS) signals that have been reflected off of the sea surface at very low angles. At these so-called grazing angles, waves and surface roughness have very little impact on the reflection process; the sea surface acts as a very smooth mirror."



Estel Cardellach is the principal investigator at the Institute for Space Studies of Catalonia, who first submitted the idea for the project.



“In a mirror-like reflection the phase of the signal can be tracked – it is continuous," said Cardellach. "Different surface heights result in different phase measurements. It gives a very precise measurement of the surface altitude at a few centimetres’ precision.”



The researchers developed a GNSS receiver and set up an experiment in the Balaeric Islands to collect signals from the receiver that were reflected off the sea surface. Ultimately, these signals will provide improved measurements of the shape of the sea surface.



Image/ Video 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

Monitoring the dynamic shape of the sea surface

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Aerial,Photo,Of,River,In,Amazon,Rainforest,Jungle,In,Peru

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center</a> describes how scientists are using autonomous sound sensors to monitor deforestation in the Amazon. By recording soundscapes, the experts can determine which animals are present through their distinct sounds.&nbsp;



Using this method, sounds can be used as scientific measurements to analyze the effects of deforestation. The researchers will gain a better understanding of how the acoustics of a forest can be used to measure its health.&nbsp;



"From space, parts of the Amazon rainforest that have previously been logged or burned may look lush and green, like a place buzzing with activity and full of sounds. But inside the rainforest, the animal life may tell a different story, of a harsh environment and a quieter soundscape," says NASA.



Video Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center&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

Monitoring deforestation in the Amazon through sounds

[sendtonews key="u0TYxxqfF7-2186404-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from NASA’s...

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