Legends about a boiling, scalding river that roasts anything that falls inside may sound like fiction. Yet nestled in the Peruvian rainforest, a curious waterway <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/andres_ruzo_the_boiling_river_of_the_amazon" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">proves</a> these stories are far from mythical.



Its waters can reach 210°F, a temperature that can cause severe burns within seconds. For decades, local communities spoke of a place so hot that small <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cold-shocks-in-the-amazon-how-do-wild-animals-respond/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">animals perish</a> upon touching its surface.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-boiling-river-in-peru">The "Boiling River" in Peru</h2>



The "Boiling River" is located in the Mayantuyacu region of central Peru. The river’s length is around 4 miles, and it can be up to about 20 feet wide in some sections.



A team of scientists led by <a href="https://www.rileyfortier.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Riley Fortier</a>, a graduate student at the <a href="https://welcome.miami.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Miami</a>, surveyed 70 sites along this tributary. 



"It really provides us a window into the future because the Amazon will get hotter whether we like it or not, so this allows us to understand what increases in temperature will do to the forest composition," said Riley Fortier, lead author on a study of the site published in <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/gcb.17555" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Global Change Biology</a>, and a graduate student in professor Kenneth Feeley's <a href="https://www.junglebiology.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jungle Biology lab</a>.



The team wanted to see how extreme heat shapes the surrounding forest.



By mapping the tree and plant species from cooler upstream areas down to the scalding heart of the river, they discovered a startling drop in biological variety. 



Findings <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/gcb.17555" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">showed</a> an 11% decline in biodiversity for each 1.8°F rise in average temperature.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-the-boiling-river-boils">Why the boiling river boils</h2>



Geoscientists attribute the heat to fault-fed activity, where underground water channels meet Earth’s geothermal energy. 



A fault is a <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-a-fault-and-what-are-different-types" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">large fracture</a> in the crust that provides a direct path for scorching fluid to surge toward the surface.



Researchers believe that rainwater infiltrating sedimentary rock becomes superheated below ground. It then emerges as a system of hot springs converging with the main watercourse, creating a natural cauldron.



“You stick your hand in, and you will see second or third degree burns in a matter of seconds,” said Ruzo, who first measured the river’s peak heat. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-signs-of-changing-forests">Signs of changing forests</h2>



Many local inhabitants regard the site with deep respect because anything that wanders too close risks a painful encounter.



Certain plants thrive on the fringes, but most large creatures struggle with the sweltering <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/tiny-microbes-in-amazon-peatlands-help-balance-the-global-climate/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">environment</a>. Adaptations are limited for organisms facing water that can reach coffee-brewing temperatures.



"Overall, the tree community is less diverse, so we see fewer species in hotter spots," Fortier said. "And forest composition was also more homogenous in the warmest locations, whereas in cooler forest plots, there was more plant diversity."



Botanical surveys from cooler sections toward the hotter stretches revealed how tree diversity narrows. In place of thick canopies, the research team documented more scrubby <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rainforest-trees-use-rivers-as-highways-for-migration/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">vegetation</a>.



"Over the course of dozens of miles, you might expect to see dramatic changes like that, but in the small sampling area that we had, you typically wouldn't see such a clear change in composition," Fortier added.



Small species adapted to drought-like conditions gained ground as the mercury rose. Larger, slower-growing trees faded away, reflecting how intense heat reshapes even lush ecosystems.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-boiling-rivers-and-future-climate">Boiling rivers and future climate</h2>



Fortier’s data suggest that as worldwide temperatures climb, similar shifts could spread across other <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-amazon-rainforest-is-approaching-widespread-collapse/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lowland rainforests</a>.



Changes may include declines in species that cannot handle additional heat and a rise in those more comfortable with higher temperatures.



Scientists note that an environment featuring fewer tree varieties will likely support fewer types of animals too. The loss of one group often sends ripples through the entire food web.



The boiling tributary, known locally as <a href="https://shanaytimpishka.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Shanay-Timpishka</a>, meaning “boiled with the heat of the sun,” stands as a stark example of what could happen if average temperatures continue to climb. 



Areas that were once rich in wildlife may morph into simpler, drier landscapes. Observers hope that studying this natural hotspot will inspire careful planning to protect sensitive habitats. 



Even though the river is unique, it signals what may lie ahead for places currently seen as safe havens for biodiversity.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ongoing-investigations">Ongoing investigations</h2>



Researchers plan to gather long-term data and explore whether <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/nearly-40-of-climate-critical-amazon-rainforest-is-unprotected/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">flora and fauna</a> can adapt to persistently higher temperatures. They will also watch for signs of any species shifting to cooler pockets.



Some scientists are examining whether the warming patterns near this location might parallel broader trends in tropical zones. 



They predict that more forests around the globe could face intense thermal stress, forcing communities to adapt or relocate.



Feeley's lab will continue its research of the boiling river, since it is such a unique place that could portend much about our natural world.



"You can't heat a whole forest, at least not artificially, which is one of the coolest aspects of the boiling river," Fortier added.



The study is published in <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/gcb.17555" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Global Change Biology</a>.



-----



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One river in the Amazon rainforest is so hot that it literally boils, destroying nearby biodiversity

Legends about a boiling, scalding river that roasts anything that falls inside may sound like fiction. Yet nestled in the Peruvian rainforest, a curious waterway proves these stories are far from mythical. Its waters can reach 210°F, a temperature that can cause severe burns within seconds. For decades, local communities spoke of a place so hot that small animals perish upon touching its surface. The "Boiling River" in Peru The "Boiling River" is located in the Mayantuyacu region of central Peru. The river’s length is around 4...

Shell President: Oil Drilling Will Be Necessary For A Very Long Time. The president of Shell Oil Co. said exploratory oil drilling off Alaska's northwest coast is going well despite stormy weather last week that caused the company to halt operations for a few days.
And in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press Marvin Odum said he expects further protests against the company's plans for Arctic drilling like the ones in Seattle and Portland where activists in kayaks tried to block Shell vessels.
Arctic offshore drilling is bitterly opposed by environmental groups that say a spill cannot be cleaned in ice-choked waters and that industrial activity will harm polar bears, walrus and ice seals already harmed by diminished sea ice. Shell President: Oil Drilling Will Be Necessary For A Very Long Time
In Seattle, Shell faced protests on the water by "kayaktivists" upset over the company staging equipment in the city. In Portland, Oregon, Greenpeace USA protesters hung from the St. Johns Bridge to delay a Shell support vessel, from heading to the Arctic.
"I think the right assumptions for me to make are, it's not going to go away," Odum said. "We saw quite a bit of very public opposition when we were in the Pacific Northwest."
Odum said he's "110 percent ready" to work with people who want to find ways to improve drilling.
"I do have an issue with those that oppose who use illegal means or put the safety of themselves or the safety of anybody associated with this operation at risk," he said.
Odum said good progress is being made on the first well off Alaska's northwest coast.
"We had a few days in the last week where we couldn't operate because of the weather," he said. "Now we're coming out of that and it looks like we're moving into a time period of good weather."
President Barack Obama this week is in Alaska rallying support for measures to combat <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=climate+change&amp;cvid=9b86354c02ca45f9ab266b835b3ff354&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">climate</a> change, such as limits on carbon emissions.
Odum is staying in the same hotel as the president - the Hotel Captain Cook.
While environmentalists praise the president for curbing greenhouse gases, they pillory him for granting Shell permission to drill in the Chukchi Sea for the first time in 24 years.
The U.S. Geological Survey estimates the Chukchi and Beaufort seas hold 26 billion barrels of recoverable oil.
Oil will continue to be needed as the United States transitions to more renewable energy, Odum said.
"Oil will be required for a long time," Odum said. "Let's take a really close look at developing our own resources, control how it's done and get all the benefits that go along with it."
Shell in two years of exploratory drilling and with up to six wells hopes to confirm a vast reservoir of oil. If it's found, Shell could apply for production permits and move oil by undersea pipe to the Alaska shore and then overland across northern Alaska to the trans-<a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=alaska&amp;cvid=219f9c904b334f669251ad7fb8fa315b&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Alaska</a> pipeline. That could take more than a decade.
Odum is confident exploration can be done safely, and the overriding factor dictating whether Shell completes an exploratory well this year will be safety.
Shell is operating under strict Arctic rules put in place after the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Arctic offshore drilling has been scrutinized in the courts in lawsuits brought by drilling opponents, Odum said.
"It's probably fair to say, this is the most scrutinized, analyzed project - <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/permafrost-soils-are-collapsing-under-rising-temperatures/">oil</a> and gas project - probably anywhere in the world. I'm actually sure of that," he said.
All the scrutiny, along with Shell's own internal review, have gone into safety considerations. It's in the company's best interest, he said.
"We can't afford to have a problem here," Odum said.
© 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Shell President: Oil Drilling Will Be Necessary For A Very Long Time

Shell President: Oil Drilling Will Be Necessary For A Very...

Colorado Gold King Mine Spill Sparks Changes In Warning System. A massive wastewater spill from an old gold mine in Colorado has prompted state officials to expand the list of downstream users they will warn after such accidents.
Last month, Colorado health officials notified only agencies inside the state after 3 million gallons of water tainted with heavy metals gushed out of the Gold King mine near Silverton and eventually reached the Animas, San Juan and Colorado rivers in New Mexico and Utah.
In the future, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment will warn downstream states as well, department spokesman Mark Salley said.
Colorado officials didn't know the magnitude of the spill when they issued their warnings, he said.
Officials in New Mexico were unhappy because they say the federal Environmental Protection Agency didn't alerted them when an EPA-supervised crew inadvertently triggered the spill about 70 miles from the New Mexico border.
The crew was trying to enter the mine as part of a cleanup operation and breached a debris pile that was holding back the water.
New Mexico officials first heard about the spill nearly 24 hours after it happened from the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, not the EPA, said Chris Sanchez, a spokesman for Gov. Susana Martinez.
The Southern Ute reservation straddles the Animas River in Colorado, and tribal officials had been alerted by the Colorado health department.
New Mexico officials contacted the <a href="http://www.earth.com/video/gentoo-penguins-are-not-one-species-but-four/">EPA</a> after hearing from the Southern Utes, Sanchez said.
"The EPA to this day has not been able to answer why the agency never contacted the state of New Mexico," Sanchez said in an email to The Associated Press.
EPA spokesman David Gray said he spoke to<a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=new+mexico&amp;cvid=8209ebae9db64ad1ae5f652b46b57e00&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS"> New Mexico's</a> Environment Department about the spill at midday Aug. 6, a day after it occurred. Gray, who works in the EPA's Dallas regional office, said that was shortly after he learned about it.
New Mexico is part of a Dallas-based EPA region; Colorado is part of a separate region with headquarters in Denver.
The EPA has come under sharp criticism for causing the spill and for its handling of the aftermath. At least four congressional committee hearings are scheduled, starting Sept. 9. Colorado Gold King Mine Spill Sparks Changes In Warning System
The EPA's inspector general is investigating. The Interior Department, which is separate from the EPA, is also investigating, with the help of the Army Corps of Engineers.
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy has said the agency accepts responsibility for the spill, calling it tragic and unfortunate.
The EPA has said water quality is returning to pre-spill levels. Colorado health officials said it is safe to eat trout from the Animas River.
---
Follow Dan Elliott at <a href="http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP</a>
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Colorado Gold King Mine Spill Sparks Changes In Warning System

Colorado Gold King Mine Spill Sparks Changes In Warning System....

Colorado Gold King Mine Spill Sparks Changes In Warning System. A massive wastewater spill from an old gold mine in Colorado has prompted state officials to expand the list of downstream users they will warn after such accidents.
Last month, Colorado health officials notified only agencies inside the state after 3 million gallons of water tainted with heavy metals gushed out of the Gold King mine near Silverton and eventually reached the Animas, San Juan and Colorado rivers in New Mexico and Utah.
In the future, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment will warn downstream states as well, department spokesman Mark Salley said.
Colorado officials didn't know the magnitude of the spill when they issued their warnings, he said.
Officials in New Mexico were unhappy because they say the federal Environmental Protection Agency didn't alerted them when an EPA-supervised crew inadvertently triggered the spill about 70 miles from the New Mexico border.
The crew was trying to enter the mine as part of a cleanup operation and breached a debris pile that was holding back the water.
New Mexico officials first heard about the spill nearly 24 hours after it happened from the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, not the EPA, said Chris Sanchez, a spokesman for Gov. Susana Martinez.
The Southern Ute reservation straddles the Animas River in <a href="http://www.earth.com/image/cameron-peak-fire-is-now-the-largest-in-colorados-recorded-history/">Colorado</a>, and tribal officials had been alerted by the Colorado health department.
New Mexico officials contacted the EPA after hearing from the Southern Utes, Sanchez said.
"The EPA to this day has not been able to answer why the agency never contacted the state of New Mexico," Sanchez said in an email to The Associated Press.
EPA spokesman David Gray said he spoke to New Mexico's Environment Department about the spill at midday Aug. 6, a day after it occurred. Gray, who works in the EPA's Dallas regional office, said that was shortly after he learned about it.
New Mexico is part of a Dallas-based EPA region; Colorado is part of a separate region with headquarters in Denver.
The EPA has come under sharp criticism for causing the spill and for its handling of the aftermath. At least four congressional committee hearings are scheduled, starting Sept. 9.
The EPA's inspector general is investigating. The Interior Department, which is separate from the EPA, is also investigating, with the help of the Army Corps of Engineers.
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy has said the agency accepts responsibility for the spill, calling it tragic and unfortunate. Colorado Gold King Mine Spill Sparks Changes In Warning System
The EPA has said water quality is returning to pre-spill levels. Colorado health officials said it is safe to eat trout from the Animas River.
---
Follow Dan Elliott at <a href="http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP</a>
© 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Fahrt nach Hunyuan. Lösslandschaft mit Siedlung

China's Loess Plateau was formed by wind alternately depositing dust or removing dust over the last 2.6 million years, according to a new report from University of<a href="http://www.earth.com/news/arizona-rock-will-help-solve-mysteries-of-the-triassic/"> Arizona</a> geoscientists.

The study is the first to explain how the steep-fronted plateau formed.

Wind blew dust from what is now the Mu Us Desert into the huge pile of consolidated dust known as the Loess Plateau, said lead author Paul Kapp, a UA professor of geosciences.

Just as a leaf blower clears an area by piling leaves up along the edge, the wind did the same thing with the dust that was once in the Mu Us Desert.

"If the blower keeps blowing the leaves, they move backward and the pile of leaves gets bigger," Kapp said. "There's a boundary between the area of leaves and no leaves."

About the size of the state of Arizona, the Loess Plateau is the largest accumulation of dust on Earth. Deposits of wind-blown dust known as "loess" generally create good agricultural soil and are found in many parts of the world, including the U.S. Midwest.

The UA team also found that, just as a leaf blower moves a pile of leaves away from itself, wind scours the face of the plateau so forcefully that the plateau is slowly moving downwind.

"You have a dust-fall event and then you have a wind event that blows some of the dust away," Kapp said. "The plateau is not static. It's moving in a windward direction."

Linear ridges on the top of the Loess Plateau are also sculpted by the wind, the researchers found.

"The significance of wind erosion shaping the landscape is generally unappreciated," Kapp said. "It's more important than previously thought."

The team's paper, "From dust to dust: Quaternary wind erosion of the Mu Us Desert and the Loess Plateau, China," is scheduled for publication in the September issue of the journalGeology and is currently <a href="http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/early/2015/07/28/G36724.1.abstract" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">online.</a>

Kapp's co-authors are UA geoscientists Alex Pullen, Jon Pelletier, Joellen Russell, Paul Goodman and former UA geosciences postdoctoral researcher Fulong Cai, now at the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research in Beijing. The National Science Foundation funded the research.

To track down the source of the Loess Plateau's dust, Kapp, Pullen and Cai went to China's deserts in 2013 during March--prime season for dust storms. The researchers hoped to experience dust storms first-hand.

While standing atop one of the plateau's linear ridges during a dust storm, the researchers noticed the wind was blowing parallel to the ridge's long axis.

Kapp said they each had the same realization at the same time: The plateau itself was being sculpted by the wind. The plateau is not just a sink for dust, but is also a source of dust.

"You have to live it for it to really sink in," he said. "You have to be out there in the field when the wind is blowing."

Once back at the UA, Kapp fired up Google Earth to see satellite images of the plateau. He saw linear ridges just a few kilometers long--ridges like the ones he'd stood on.

To learn more, he started mapping the ridges in the satellite images.

"I mapped stuff like crazy, for weeks and weeks--I measured the orientation of about three thousand ridges from these images," he said.

The ridges ran northwest-southeast in the northern part of the plateau and ran more north-south in the southern part.

To compare the orientation of the ridges to the orientation of the winds, he asked Russell to make a map of the modern-day wind patterns over the Mu Us desert and the Loess Plateau.

The wind pattern map, especially the winter and spring dust storm winds, matched the orientation of the ridges on top of the plateau.

"I've never seen anyone look at the wind-related geomorphology and actually relate it to climatology at the large scale of the entire Mu Us Desert and Loess Plateau," Kapp said. "It's a rare approach."

The team's ideas definitely are applicable to the formation of other areas of loess deposits on Earth, Kapp said, adding, "But nothing compares to the size of the Loess Plateau."

He continues to be fascinated by how wind shapes planets. Kapp's next step is looking at other wind-eroded landscapes on Earth and also on Mars.

---

<a href="http://www.arizona.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">University of Arizona</a>

China's Loess Plateau Was Formed By Wind

China's Loess Plateau was formed by wind alternately depositing dust...

Group Fails To Reach Agreement To Save Bluefin Tuna. An international body that monitors fisheries in most of the Pacific Ocean ended a meeting in Japan on Thursday without agreement on fresh measures to protect the dwindling bluefin tuna.
The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission was unable to get a consensus on either short-term or long-term measures to help restore the bluefin population, whose numbers are estimated to have fallen 96 percent from unfished levels.
Last year, the 10-nation commission recommended that the catch of juvenile tuna be cut to half of its average level in 2002-2004. But conservation groups say more must be done to counter the sharp decline of the species.
The lack of a required three-quarters quorum prevented any agreement, since representatives from China, the Cook Islands, Vanuatu and the Philippines did not attend. So any decisions on new long-term measures were pushed back to 2016, the Japanese Fisheries Agency said.
Further inaction would likely prompt efforts by conservationists to get <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=pacific&amp;cvid=faf7d6ec872040de81efcec843997ca8&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Pacific</a> bluefin tuna banned from international trading, said a statement by The Pew Charitable Trusts, which is working to save the species.
"Unfortunately, the only outcome of this week's meeting is a guarantee that the Pacific bluefin tuna population will decline even further because of the continued inaction of ten governments responsible for the management of this species," Amanda Nickson, director of global tuna conservation for the group.
"The international community may be forced to look at a global trade ban to help save this species," she said in a statement.
The fisheries group also did not agree to a request by researchers to study the results of stricter fisheries management during their four-day meeting in the northern city of Sapporo.
Japanese eat 80 percent of the world's bluefin tuna, or "hon maguro," a sushi mainstay, and demand elsewhere in the world has kept growing. At a ritual new year auction, the top price for the fish jumped to about $7,000 a kilogram in 2013 but was a more reasonable $208 per kilogram this year.
Most of the fish caught are juveniles that have not had a chance to reproduce. The species could recover relatively quickly, however, since they are highly productive, spawning millions of eggs a year.
The environmental group Greenpeace praised <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/nearly-all-native-japanese-bats-are-endangered/">Japanese</a> representatives for proposing emergency measures to help the bluefin tuna, but said given the severity of its decline Japan should restrict sales of the fish.
A stock assessment by the International Scientific Committee for Tuna and Tuna-like Species in the Northern Pacific Ocean found the levels of bluefin in 2012 at near their lowest ever of just 4 percent of original stocks. Group Fails To Reach Agreement To Save Bluefin Tuna
---
Follow Elaine Kurtenbach: twitter.com/ekurtenbach
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Group Fails To Reach Agreement To Save Bluefin Tuna

Group Fails To Reach Agreement To Save Bluefin Tuna. An...

Colorado Gold King Mine Spill Sparks Changes In Warning System. A massive wastewater spill from an old gold mine in Colorado has prompted state officials to expand the list of downstream users they will warn after such accidents.
Last month, Colorado health officials notified only agencies inside the state after 3 million gallons of water tainted with heavy metals gushed out of the Gold King mine near Silverton and eventually reached the Animas, San Juan and Colorado rivers in New Mexico and Utah.
In the future, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment will warn downstream states as well, department spokesman Mark Salley said. Colorado Gold King Mine Spill Sparks Changes In Warning System
Colorado officials didn't know the magnitude of the spill when they issued their warnings, he said.
Officials in New Mexico were unhappy because they say the federal Environmental Protection Agency didn't alerted them when an EPA-supervised crew inadvertently triggered the spill about 70 miles from the New Mexico border.
The crew was trying to enter the mine as part of a cleanup operation and breached a debris pile that was holding back the water.
New Mexico officials first heard about the spill nearly 24 hours after it happened from the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, not the EPA, said Chris Sanchez, a spokesman for Gov. Susana Martinez.
The Southern Ute reservation straddles the Animas River in Colorado, and tribal officials had been alerted by the Colorado health department.
New Mexico officials contacted the EPA after hearing from the Southern Utes, Sanchez said.
"The EPA to this day has not been able to answer why the agency never contacted the state of New Mexico," Sanchez said in an email to The Associated Press.
EPA spokesman David Gray said he spoke to New Mexico's Environment Department about the spill at midday Aug. 6, a day after it occurred. Gray, who works in the EPA's Dallas regional office, said that was shortly after he learned about it.
New Mexico is part of a <a href="http://www.earth.com/image/the-city-of-houston-from-space/">Dallas</a>-based EPA region; Colorado is part of a separate region with headquarters in Denver.
The EPA has come under sharp criticism for causing the spill and for its handling of the aftermath. At least four congressional committee hearings are scheduled, starting Sept. 9.
The EPA's inspector general is investigating. The Interior Department, which is separate from the EPA, is also investigating, with the help of the Army Corps of Engineers.
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy has said the agency accepts responsibility for the spill, calling it tragic and unfortunate.
The EPA has said water quality is returning to pre-spill levels. Colorado health officials said it is safe to eat trout from the Animas River.
---
Follow Dan Elliott at <a href="http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP</a>
© 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Group Fails To Reach Agreement To Save Bluefin Tuna. An international body that monitors fisheries in most of the Pacific Ocean ended a meeting in Japan on Thursday without agreement on fresh measures to protect the dwindling bluefin tuna.
The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission was unable to get a consensus on either short-term or long-term measures to help restore the bluefin population, whose numbers are estimated to have fallen 96 percent from unfished levels.
Last year, the 10-nation commission recommended that the catch of juvenile tuna be cut to half of its average level in 2002-2004. But conservation groups say more must be done to counter the sharp decline of the species.
The lack of a required three-quarters quorum prevented any agreement, since representatives from China, the Cook Islands, Vanuatu and the Philippines did not attend. So any decisions on new long-term measures were pushed back to 2016, the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/nearly-all-native-japanese-bats-are-endangered/">Japanese</a> Fisheries Agency said.
Further inaction would likely prompt efforts by conservationists to get Pacific bluefin tuna banned from international trading, said a statement by The Pew Charitable Trusts, which is working to save the species.
"Unfortunately, the only outcome of this week's meeting is a guarantee that the Pacific bluefin tuna population will decline even further because of the continued inaction of ten governments responsible for the management of this species," Amanda Nickson, director of global tuna conservation for the group.
"The international community may be forced to look at a <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=global&amp;cvid=387298aa6d544428ae813fc60dfa7e57&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">global</a> trade ban to help save this species," she said in a statement.
The fisheries group also did not agree to a request by researchers to study the results of stricter fisheries management during their four-day meeting in the northern city of Sapporo.
Japanese eat 80 percent of the world's bluefin tuna, or "hon maguro," a sushi mainstay, and demand elsewhere in the world has kept growing. At a ritual new year auction, the top price for the fish jumped to about $7,000 a kilogram in 2013 but was a more reasonable $208 per kilogram this year.
Most of the fish caught are juveniles that have not had a chance to reproduce. The species could recover relatively quickly, however, since they are highly productive, spawning millions of eggs a year.
The environmental group Greenpeace praised <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/nearly-all-native-japanese-bats-are-endangered/">Japanese</a> representatives for proposing emergency measures to help the bluefin tuna, but said given the severity of its decline Japan should restrict sales of the fish. Group Fails To Reach Agreement To Save Bluefin Tuna
A stock assessment by the International Scientific Committee for Tuna and Tuna-like Species in the Northern Pacific Ocean found the levels of bluefin in 2012 at near their lowest ever of just 4 percent of original stocks.
---
Follow Elaine Kurtenbach: twitter.com/ekurtenbach
© 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Washington State Sues Feds Over Nuclear Waste Tanks. Washington state is suing the federal government again over cleanup of nuclear waste tanks at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation - this time over the danger posed to workers by vapor releases from underground waste-storage tanks.
In a federal lawsuit filed in Spokane on Wednesday, state Attorney General Bob Ferguson said the U.S. Department of Energy has known about vapors sickening workers at the site since at least the late 1980s, but hasn't fixed it - even though agencies have issued 19 reports on the problem. Hanford, on the <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=Columbia+River&amp;cvid=59d6fe4485b7446aa604b86def4369bc&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Columbia River</a> in eastern Washington, produced plutonium for nuclear weapons from 1943 to 1987.
There were more than 50 reports of workers being exposed to vapors between January 2014 and April 2015, Ferguson said, and hundreds over the past few decades, with victims suffering from symptoms that include nosebleeds, brain damage and permanent loss of lung capacity. One longtime worker, Gary Sall, died from brain swelling linked to chemical vapors in 2011. Washington State Sues Feds Over Nuclear Waste Tanks
"Neither the Department of Energy nor its contractors have followed through to finally fix the problem and keep our workers safe," Ferguson told a news conference. "If you visited Hanford today, you'd find some workers at the tank farms still exposed to vapors seeping out of these tanks."
The lawsuit also names the Energy Department's contractor at Hanford, <a href="http://www.earth.com/image/mount-rainier-in-washington/">Washington</a> River Protection Solutions, as a defendant. An advocacy group for Hanford workers, Hanford Challenge, and a union representing some of them, United Association of Steamfitters and Plumbers Local 598, filed a companion lawsuit.
In statements Wednesday, the department and its contractor said steps have already been taken to improve worker safety at the site, such as by increasing the use of self-contained breathing devices in areas of potential vapor exposure.
"The Department's top priority is the protection of our workforce, the public and the environment," Energy spokeswoman Carrie Meyer said in an email.
Washington River Protection Solutions said that since it took over as the contractor for tank operations in 2008, it has increased and improved sampling methods for detecting vapors and created wider vapor control zones for workers, and it's working on a multiyear plan to improve monitoring for vapors, among other things.
Washington sued the Energy Department in 2008 over the glacial pace of cleanup at Hanford, and the federal government agreed to a timeline for cleanup in a 2010 settlement. It's lagging in meeting those goals.
The Energy Department already asked for a one-year extension of its deadline for emptying nine leak-prone tanks, saying that having more employees wear respirators was slowing down the work.
Some 56 million gallons of toxic waste - much of it radioactive - is stored in 177 underground tanks on the 586-square-mile reservation. Most of the tanks are single-shelled and considered inadequate, and workers have been transferring the waste inside them to double-shelled tanks. The tanks are vented to keep dangerous gases from building up inside and causing explosions. While the vents do have filters that capture toxic particulates, the filters don't capture chemical vapors.
Current and former Hanford workers who attended Ferguson's news conference described a patchwork of safety practices that lead to some people carrying full breathing apparatus - like the air tanks firefighters carry into a burning building - while others nearby have no protection.
Pete Nicacio, business manager for Local 598, scoffed at Hanford's use of a rope delineating where workers need to wear breathing gear and where they don't, saying workers call it "the magic rope." He said his union members insist on breathing gear, and as a result, bosses have sometimes taken work away from them.
Tom Carpenter, executive director of Hanford Challenge, said a major problem is that Hanford doesn't have monitoring systems sophisticated enough to know what gases workers have been exposed to - some of which are dangerous enough to cause health problems at infinitesimally low concentrations. More than 1,500 chemical gases have been found in the tanks, and doctors are often forced to try to figure out which ones workers might have been exposed to based only on their symptoms.
Diana Gegg, 64, was working as a heavy equipment operator at Hanford one day in 2007 when she smelled something like chlorine or ammonia. She became dizzy and developed "flu-like symptoms which never went away and still haven't," as well as a bad stutter and memory problems.
After the news conference, she handed a reporter a typed statement because of her difficulty speaking.
Another worker, electrician Steve Lewis, said he has experienced inflamed skin and continual congestion in his throat. But, he added, "I've watched other people deal with things that were way worse than that."
© 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Washington State Sues Feds Over Nuclear Waste Tanks

Washington State Sues Feds Over Nuclear Waste Tanks. Washington state...

Extra CO2 Can Help Plants But Only At Low Temperatures. Researchers say it's important to better understand the interplay between plant communities and the changing ratios of chemicals in the atmosphere and ocean.

Phytoplankton are plant-like microorganisms that serve as the foundation for many marine food chains. Like plants, phytoplankton covert sunlight into chemical energy and carbon dioxide into oxygen.

Logic suggests that extra CO2 would be advantageous to phytoplankton. But a new study in the Arctic Ocean suggests growing levels of <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=carbon+dioxide&amp;cvid=8500f90c42734c019bf44b3fda8c471a&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">carbon dioxide</a> offer a boost only at low temperatures.

According to researchers at the University of Western Australia, rising CO2 concentrations in Arctic waters are having a positive effect on phytoplankton growth -- but that effect fades as water temperatures rise. Extra CO2 Can Help Plants But Only At Low Temperatures

"This influx of CO2 could benefit primary producers, but we cannot forget that the temperature of the Arctic Ocean is also increasing almost three times faster than global temperatures," Lara Garcia-Corral, a researcher with UWA's Oceans Institute and School of Plant Biology, explained in a press release. "With the advent of the summer, when the temperature increases, the fertilizing effect of carbon dioxide diminishes to nothing and the ability of phytoplankton to capture CO2 decreases."

Even though CO2's plant-boosting effects may be limited to specific temperature ranges, researchers say it's important to better understand the interplay between plant communities and the changing ratios of chemicals in the atmosphere and ocean.

"These changes have a significant impact on ecosystems and the regulation of CO2," Garcia-Corral said. "Therefore, they are fundamental to elaborate projections of future impacts of climate change."

The work of Garcia-Corral and her colleagues is detailed in the latest issue of the <a class="tpstyle" href="http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate2768.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">journal of Nature Climate Change</a>.

---

Credit: UPI

Extra CO2 Can Help Plants But Only At Low Temperatures

Extra CO2 Can Help Plants But Only At Low Temperatures....

Researchers say it's important to better understand the interplay between plant communities and the changing ratios of chemicals in the atmosphere and ocean.

Phytoplankton are plant-like microorganisms that serve as the foundation for many marine food chains. Like plants, phytoplankton covert sunlight into chemical energy and carbon dioxide into oxygen.

Logic suggests that extra CO2 would be advantageous to phytoplankton. But a new study in the Arctic Ocean suggests growing levels of carbon dioxide offer a boost only at low temperatures.

According to researchers at the University of Western Australia, rising CO2 concentrations in Arctic waters are having a positive effect on phytoplankton growth -- but that effect fades as water temperatures rise.

"This influx of CO2 could benefit primary producers, but we cannot forget that the temperature of the Arctic Ocean is also increasing almost three times faster than global temperatures," Lara Garcia-Corral, a researcher with UWA's Oceans Institute and School of Plant Biology, explained in a press release. "With the advent of the summer, when the temperature increases, the fertilizing effect of carbon dioxide diminishes to nothing and the ability of phytoplankton to capture CO2 decreases."

Even though CO2's plant-boosting effects may be limited to specific temperature ranges, researchers say it's important to better understand the interplay between plant communities and the changing ratios of chemicals in the atmosphere and ocean.

"These changes have a significant impact on ecosystems and the regulation of CO2," Garcia-Corral said. "Therefore, they are fundamental to elaborate projections of future impacts of climate change."

The work of Garcia-Corral and her colleagues is detailed in the latest issue of the <a class="tpstyle" href="http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate2768.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">journal of Nature Climate Change</a>.

---

Credit: UPI

Researchers say it's important to better understand the interplay between...

Extra CO2 Can Help Plants But Only At Low Temperatures. Researchers say it's important to better understand the interplay between plant communities and the changing ratios of chemicals in the atmosphere and ocean.

Phytoplankton are plant-like microorganisms that serve as the foundation for many marine food chains. Like plants, phytoplankton covert sunlight into chemical energy and carbon dioxide into oxygen.

Logic suggests that extra CO2 would be advantageous to <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=phytoplankton&amp;cvid=054a1ef2ea6044099a93c43e641009e3&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">phytoplankton</a>. But a new study in the Arctic Ocean suggests growing levels of carbon dioxide offer a boost only at low temperatures.

According to researchers at the University of Western Australia, rising CO2 concentrations in Arctic waters are having a positive effect on phytoplankton growth -- but that effect fades as water temperatures rise. Extra CO2 Can Help Plants But Only At Low Temperatures

"This influx of CO2 could benefit primary producers, but we cannot forget that the temperature of the Arctic Ocean is also increasing almost three times faster than global temperatures," Lara Garcia-Corral, a researcher with UWA's Oceans Institute and School of Plant Biology, explained in a press release. "With the advent of the summer, when the temperature increases, the fertilizing effect of carbon dioxide diminishes to nothing and the ability of phytoplankton to capture CO2 decreases."

Even though CO2's plant-boosting effects may be limited to specific temperature ranges, researchers say it's important to better understand the interplay between plant communities and the changing ratios of chemicals in the atmosphere and ocean. Extra CO2 Can Help Plants But Only At Low Temperatures

"These changes have a significant impact on ecosystems and the regulation of CO2," Garcia-Corral said. "Therefore, they are fundamental to elaborate projections of future impacts of climate change."

The work of Garcia-Corral and her colleagues is detailed in the latest issue of the <a class="tpstyle" href="http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate2768.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">journal of Nature Climate Change</a>.

---

Credit: UPI

Washington State Sues Feds Over Nuclear Waste . Washington state is suing the federal government again over cleanup of nuclear waste tanks at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation - this time over the danger posed to workers by vapor releases from underground waste-storage tanks.
In a federal lawsuit filed in Spokane on Wednesday, state Attorney General Bob Ferguson said the U.S. Department of Energy has known about vapors sickening workers at the site since at least the late 1980s, but hasn't fixed it - even though agencies have issued 19 reports on the problem. Hanford, on the Columbia River in eastern Washington, produced plutonium for<a href="http://www.earth.com/news/radioactive-carbon-from-nuclear-bomb-tests/"> nuclear</a> weapons from 1943 to 1987.
There were more than 50 reports of workers being exposed to vapors between January 2014 and April 2015, Ferguson said, and hundreds over the past few decades, with victims suffering from symptoms that include nosebleeds, brain damage and permanent loss of lung capacity. One longtime worker, Gary Sall, died from brain swelling linked to chemical vapors in 2011. Washington State Sues Feds Over Nuclear Waste Tanks
"Neither the Department of Energy nor its contractors have followed through to finally fix the problem and keep our workers safe," Ferguson told a news conference. "If you visited Hanford today, you'd find some workers at the tank farms still exposed to vapors seeping out of these tanks."
The lawsuit also names the Energy Department's contractor at Hanford, <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=Washington&amp;cvid=e3b63710753b4b7d9fbd974d38e5ed5a&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Washington</a> River Protection Solutions, as a defendant. An advocacy group for Hanford workers, Hanford Challenge, and a union representing some of them, United Association of Steamfitters and Plumbers Local 598, filed a companion lawsuit.
In statements Wednesday, the department and its contractor said steps have already been taken to improve worker safety at the site, such as by increasing the use of self-contained breathing devices in areas of potential vapor exposure. Washington State Sues Feds Over Nuclear Waste Tanks
"The Department's top priority is the protection of our workforce, the public and the environment," Energy spokeswoman Carrie Meyer said in an email. Washington State Sues Feds Over Nuclear Waste Tanks
Washington River Protection Solutions said that since it took over as the contractor for tank operations in 2008, it has increased and improved sampling methods for detecting vapors and created wider vapor control zones for workers, and it's working on a multiyear plan to improve monitoring for vapors, among other things.
Washington sued the Energy Department in 2008 over the glacial pace of cleanup at Hanford, and the federal government agreed to a timeline for cleanup in a 2010 settlement. It's lagging in meeting those goals.
The Energy Department already asked for a one-year extension of its deadline for emptying nine leak-prone tanks, saying that having more employees wear respirators was slowing down the work.
Some 56 million gallons of toxic waste - much of it radioactive - is stored in 177 underground tanks on the 586-square-mile reservation. Most of the tanks are single-shelled and considered inadequate, and workers have been transferring the waste inside them to double-shelled tanks. The tanks are vented to keep dangerous gases from building up inside and causing explosions. While the vents do have filters that capture toxic particulates, the filters don't capture chemical vapors.
Current and former Hanford workers who attended Ferguson's news conference described a patchwork of safety practices that lead to some people carrying full breathing apparatus - like the air tanks firefighters carry into a burning building - while others nearby have no protection.
Pete Nicacio, business manager for Local 598, scoffed at Hanford's use of a rope delineating where workers need to wear breathing gear and where they don't, saying workers call it "the magic rope." He said his union members insist on breathing gear, and as a result, bosses have sometimes taken work away from them.
Tom Carpenter, executive director of Hanford Challenge, said a major problem is that Hanford doesn't have monitoring systems sophisticated enough to know what gases workers have been exposed to - some of which are dangerous enough to cause health problems at infinitesimally low concentrations. More than 1,500 chemical gases have been found in the tanks, and doctors are often forced to try to figure out which ones workers might have been exposed to based only on their symptoms.
Diana Gegg, 64, was working as a heavy equipment operator at Hanford one day in 2007 when she smelled something like chlorine or ammonia. She became dizzy and developed "flu-like symptoms which never went away and still haven't," as well as a bad stutter and memory problems.
After the news conference, she handed a reporter a typed statement because of her difficulty speaking.
Another worker, electrician Steve Lewis, said he has experienced inflamed skin and continual congestion in his throat. But, he added, "I've watched other people deal with things that were way worse than that."
© 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Washington State Sues Feds Over Nuclear Waste

Washington State Sues Feds Over Nuclear Waste . Washington state...

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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



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.

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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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.

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 



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 <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



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.

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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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 <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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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.

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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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 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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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...