Environment

Scientists have detected several thousand earthquakes, the vast majority of them with small magnitudes, in just over two weeks near Greece's volcanic island of Santorini, the University of Athens' crisis management committee said Tuesday, adding that a larger quake cannot be ruled out.... Read more

Extreme precipitation events in Antarctica, which are mostly dominated by snowfall due to sub-zero temperatures, also include rainfall, according to new research.... Read more

A windy, dusty day can ruin your new car wash and leave you with grit in your mouth and dirt on your floors. But a new study in the journal Nature Sustainability, published by researchers at The University of Texas at El Paso, George Mason University and the U.S. Department... Read more

A study published in PNAS Nexus shows that there are almost twice as many risky days for large human-caused fires in the American West as there are for lightning-caused fires, due to differences in the level of heat and aridity under which each type of fire is likely to occur.... Read more

The world's largest known lithium deposit exists within a vast salt pan called the Salar de Uyuni, which stretches for thousands of square miles atop a high, dry Andean plateau in Bolivia. For most of the year, salt crystals encrust the terrain, white as confectioner's sugar. During the wet season,... Read more

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are known to be contaminants originating in industrial processes and materials, as well as a reason for substandard indoor air, but they are also formed in nature, including wetlands, forests, volcanoes and hydrothermal vents.... Read more

Greenland's ice sheet currently spans over 1.7 million square kilometers and is the largest freshwater reservoir in the northern hemisphere. The ice sheet has already lost over a trillion tonnes of its total mass since the 1980s, with melting rates six times higher in the last decade. Indeed, a recent... Read more

A study tracking rainfall patterns over thousands of years has found that more arid periods coincided with ages of dynastic turmoil in China—highlighting a historical link between climate stress and social unrest.... Read more

New Zealand is considering withdrawing its support for an international ban on deep-sea mining, the country's resources minister told AFP on Tuesday.... Read more

Imagine a world in which a hurricane devastates the Gulf Coast, and the U.S. has no federal agency prepared to quickly send supplies, financial aid and temporary housing assistance.... Read more

The rapid melting and thinning of the Arctic ice has sparked serious concerns in the scientific community. In addition, sea ice thickness has also decreased, which makes ice cover more vulnerable to warming air and ocean temperatures.... Read more

Fire broke out in the Grampians National Park (Gariwerd) in December and raged for weeks. Then lightning strikes ignited fresh blazes late last month, which merged to form a mega-fire that's not out yet.... Read more

Nearly all nations missed a UN deadline Monday to submit new targets for slashing carbon emissions, including major economies under pressure to show leadership following the US retreat on climate change.... Read more

Water bills are going up in England and Wales, even after the series of scandals around water companies. Last year water firms paid £158 million in fines following a record-breaking number of sewage dumps in rivers and seas.... Read more

Tracking and predicting sea level rise involves more than measuring the height of our oceans: Land along coastlines also inches up and down in elevation. Using California as a case study, a NASA-led team has shown how seemingly modest vertical land motion could significantly impact local sea levels in coming... Read more