A massive line of vegetation in the Sahel may intensify the West African monsoon, simulations show Africa’s “Great Green Wall” initiative is a proposed 8,000-kilometer line of trees meant to hold back the Sahara from expanding southward. New climate simulations looking to both the region’s past and future suggest thisContinue Reading
New rovers started exploring the Red Planet while other missions launched to asteroids While a flurry of missions crowded around Mars this year, some lesser-explored parts of the solar system are about to get fresh eyes. Three countries visited the Red Planet in 2021, sending orbiters, landers, rovers and evenContinue Reading
Maxwell Ochoo’s first attempt at farming was a dismal failure. In Ochieng Odiere, a village near the shores of Kenya’s Lake Victoria, “getting a job is a challenge,” the 34-year-old says. To earn some money and help feed his family, he turned to farming. In 2017, he planted watermelon seedsContinue Reading
Does it keep them up later? The summer solstice, which marks the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, happens Sunday (June 20) at 11:32 p.m. EDT (Monday, June 21 at 03:32 UTC). This event happens when Earth’s tilt toward the sun is at its maximum and theContinue Reading
Knock-on effects could transform the Amazon rainforest into savannah As climate change continues to heat the planet, ice sheets and ocean currents could destabilize each other, leading to a climate domino effect impacting 40% of the world’s population, according to new research. And these effects could be seen at wayContinue Reading
The ice shelf on Antarctica’s Pine Island Glacier lost about one-fifth of its area from 2017 to 2020, mostly in three dramatic breaks. Pine Island Glacier, one of the fastest-shrinking glaciers in Antarctica, hastened its slide into the sea between 2017 and 2020, when one-fifth of its associated iceContinue Reading
A burning container ship dumped tons of plastic debris onto Sri Lanka’s beaches. A burning container ship dumped tons of plastic debris onto Sri Lanka’s beaches, prompting a widespread environmental disaster, according to recent news reports. The ship, the X-Press Pearl, had sailed to Sri Lanka from India and wasContinue Reading
Gold veins thicker than your arm finally get a geological explanation. Why did some gold prospectors strike it rich with a bonanza gold vein, while others came up empty-handed? The credit may go to nanoparticles. New research reveals that high-grade veins of gold contain clusters of gold nanoparticles, which isContinue Reading
Whale sharks, hammerheads and more frequent the site. The top of Darwin’s Arch, the famous natural stone archway in the northern Galapagos Islands, has crashed into the waves, according to news reports. The arch, located less than 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) off the steep and rocky coast of Darwin Island,Continue Reading
An airplane saw thunderstorms create extremely high levels of chemicals called oxidants. Lightning may play an important role in clearing the air of pollutants. A storm-chasing airplane has shown that lightning can forge large amounts of oxidants. These chemicals cleanse the atmosphere by reacting with pollutants such as methane. ThoseContinue Reading