"Posidonia oceánica can act as an environmental tracer, reflecting different levels of local and regional pollution", Antonio Tovar-Sánchez, lead author of the study and a researcher at the Global Change research department at the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (CSIC-UIB), tells SINC.
Millions of years ago, volcanic eruptions in North America were more explosive and may have significantly affected the environment and the global climate. So scientists report in this week's issue of the journal Nature.
The researchers found the remains--deposited in layers of rocks--of eruptions of volcanoes located on North America's northern high plains that spewed massive amounts of sulfate aerosols into the atmosphere 40 million years ago. The scientists conducted their research at Scotts Bluff National Monument, Neb., and in surrounding areas.
KNOXVILLE -- Some bacteria destroy oil and those bacteria could lead oil companies to change their methods of harvesting the energy of the oil while at the same time reducing the carbon dioxide that burning oil and gasoline discharges into the atmosphere, says Steve Larter, professor of geoscience and holder of the Canada Research Chair in Petroleum Geology at the University of Calgary, ho was the keynote speaker today for the 2010 Goldschmidt Conference hosted by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
RENO, Nev. – After a succession of eight separate earthquake simulations, a 110-foot long, 200-ton concrete bridge model at the University of Nevada, Reno withstood a powerful jolting, three times the acceleration of the disastrous 1994 magnitude 6.9 Northridge, Calif. earthquake, and survived in good condition.
COLLEGE STATION, June 14, 2010 - Haze, scientifically known as atmospheric aerosols - microscopic particles suspended in the Earth's atmosphere - represents a major environmental problem because it degrades visibility, affects human health and influences the climate. Despite its profound impacts, how the haze is formed is not fully understood, says a Texas A&M University professor of atmospheric sciences and chemistry who has studied air chemistry for more than 20 years.
BATON ROUGE – On March 20, Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano woke from its nearly 200-year slumber to change the way the world viewed volcanoes forever. Bringing almost all transatlantic air travel to a halt for the first time in modern history, this volcano reminded humanity of the powers these forces of nature contain – and of our relative inability to understand them.
In the next 50 years, it is estimated that drinking water needs in the Kabul Basin of Afghanistan may increase sixfold due to population increases resulting from returning refugees. It is also likely that future water resources in the Kabul Basin will be reduced as a result of increasing air temperatures associated with global climate change. These are the findings of a new study conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey.
If you bought a Prius because it emitted less CO2 and you don't realize the batteries are making acid rain worse, you probably supported, along with Al Gore, ethanol all throughout the 1990s - because you don't understand how systems work.
College Park, MD (June 17, 2010) -- The fiber optic cable networks linking the world are an essential part of modern life. To keep up with ever-increasing demands for more bandwidth, scientists are working to improve the optical amplifiers that boost fiber optic signals across long distances.
College Park, MD (June 17, 2010) -- For the very first time, a team of researchers in Germany has introduced quantum dots in fully epitaxial nitride laser structures without the need for hybrid systems -- effectively eliminating the cumbersome method of combining different materials from epitaxy and evaporation. This should help pave the way to a further optimization of lasers and single photon emitters in the visible spectrum region, according to the team.
College Park, MD (June 17, 2010) -- An understanding of particle diffusion in the presence of constrictions is essential in fields as diverse as drug delivery, cellular biology, nanotechnology, materials engineering, and spread of pollutants in the soil. When a driving force is applied, displacement of particles occurs as well as diffusion. A paper in the Journal of Chemical Physics, which is published by the American Institute of Physics (AIP), quantifies the effects of periodic constrictions on drift and diffusion in systems experiencing a driving force.
College Park, MD (June 22, 2010) -- The secret life of water just got weirder. For years water has been known to exist in 15 phases -- not just the merry threesome of solid, liquid and gas from grade school science. Now, University of Utah chemists have confirmed the coexistence of ice and liquid after water crystallizes at very low temperatures. They describe their work in the June 21 issue of the Journal of Chemical Physics, which is published by the American Institute of Physics (AIP).
College Park, MD (June 17, 2010) -- Atmospheric research often focuses on clouds' impact on weather and climate. Yet even low clouds are a long way off, with a base some 6,000 feet above earth. University of Notre Dame fluid dynamics and engineering professor Harindra Fernando works the other end of the air column closer to home—the bottom of the atmosphere in the city, which is known as the urban boundary layer. A report on his team's work appears in a recent journal article in Physics of Fluids, which is published by the American Institute of Physics (AIP).
