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Earth Sciences
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Earth Sciences - Environment - 06.02.2025

For the first time, an international team of researchers has shown that countless tiny ice quakes take place in one of Greenland's mightiest ice streams. This finding will allow the flowing of the ice stream and associated changes in sea level to be estimated more accurately. The great ice streams of the Antarctic and Greenland are like frozen rivers, carrying ice from the massive inland ice sheets to the sea - and a change in their dynamics will contribute significantly to sea-level rise.
Astronomy / Space - Earth Sciences - 03.02.2025

Meteoroid impacts create seismic waves that cause Mars to shake stronger and deeper than previously thought: This is shown by an investigation using artificial intelligence carried out by an international research team led by the University of Bern. Similarities were found between numerous meteoroid impacts on the surface of Mars and marsquakes recorded by NASA's Mars lander InSight.
Environment - Earth Sciences - 30.01.2025

An international research team has concluded that the Sikkim flood disaster in the Himalayas in October 2023 was caused by some 14.7 million cubic meters of frozen moraine material collapsing into South Lhonak Lake, triggering a 20-meter flood wave. The event is a striking example of the increasing dangers of climate change in high mountain regions.
Earth Sciences - Environment - 15.01.2025

A study by the University of Bern and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the USA concludes that ocean circulation in the North Atlantic, which includes the Gulf Stream, has not weakened over the past 60 years. These results contradict previous assumptions. We owe the mild climate in Europe to the ocean circulation in the North Atlantic, which not only transports heat northwards from the equator, but also distributes oxygen and nutrients in the ocean.
Environment - Earth Sciences - 09.01.2025

On the Pic du Midi in the Pyrenees, researchers have analysed particulate matter, clouds and rainwater for traces of arsenic. Using newly developed measurement methods, they have elucidated the transport pathways of the environmental toxin in the atmosphere. Arsenic is a trace element that lies just below phosphorus - which is essential for all living organisms - in the periodic table.
Earth Sciences - Materials Science - 07.01.2025

Geophysicists at ETH Zurich are using models of the lower mantle to identify areas where earthquake waves behave differently than previously assumed. This indicates the presence of zones of rocks that are colder, or have a different composition, than the surrounding rocks. This finding challenges our current understanding of the Earth's plate tectonics - and presents the researchers with a major mystery.
Environment - Earth Sciences - 19.12.2024

The search for the world's oldest ice in Antarctica is entering a decisive phase. In this major European project, researchers in Antarctica are attempting to extract drill cores containing climate information from the past 1.5 million years. The University of Bern is playing an important role in this.
Earth Sciences - Campus - 16.12.2024

By studying sulphur in magmatic fluids at extreme pressures and temperatures, a team from the University of Geneva is revolutionising our understanding of gold transport and ore deposit formation. When one tectonic plate sinks beneath another, it generates magmas rich in volatiles such as water, sulphur and chlorine.
Environment - Earth Sciences - 04.12.2024
CLOUD experiment resolves puzzle of new aerosol particles in upper troposphere
In a paper published today in the journal Nature , the CLOUD collaboration at CERN reveals a new source of atmospheric aerosol particles that could help scientists to refine climate models. Aerosols are microscopic particles suspended in the atmosphere that arise from both natural sources and human activities.
Environment - Earth Sciences - 27.11.2024

A research team led by scientists has developed a system that provides key insight into the relationship between sea spray aerosols, sea state and atmospheric conditions. The system was mounted on an icebreaker and carried across vast regions of the Arctic to collect and analyze valuable data. Aerosols are tiny particles suspended in the air that play an important role in cloud formation, precipitation and the reflection of sunlight back into space.
Astronomy / Space - Earth Sciences - 24.11.2024

By analyzing a Martian meteorite, scientists from the University of Lausanne and Curtin University have discovered traces of water dating back 4.45 billion years in the crust of Mars, i.e. to the beginning of the Red Planet's formation. This new information reinforces the hypothesis that Mars may have been habitable at some point in its history.
Environment - Earth Sciences - 31.10.2024

Unlike oceans, lakes are major emitters of CO2. Why is this so, and what mechanisms are at work? Scientists at the University of Lausanne have succeeded in explaining the complete carbon cycle in Lake Geneva for the first time, generating a model that can be applied to several of the world's great lakes.
Environment - Earth Sciences - 16.10.2024

A new catalogue and database of over 17,000 European river catchments facilitates the work of researchers in the field of hydrology. The EStreams project, carried out at Eawag, provides hydrological and meteorological data as well as information on the landscape of the river regions. The records go back up to 120 years.
Earth Sciences - Environment - 08.10.2024

A team of scientists has provided insight into the mechanisms at work in geothermal reservoirs located deep underground, known as supercritical reservoirs. Through a combination of computer simulations and lab experiments, they showed that rocks located between five and eight kilometers deep in the Earth's crust are also permeable to fluids.
Astronomy / Space - Earth Sciences - 17.09.2024

An international team, including UNIGE, unveiled the "Neptunian Ridge", an overdensity of Neptunes nestled between the Neptunian Desert and the Neptunian Savanna. Astronomers have uncovered the ''Neptunian Ridge'', a newly identified feature in the distribution of exoplanets. This discovery, led by an international team including members of the University of Geneva, The NCCR PlanetS and the Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), highlights the complex dynamics within the Neptunian Desert, a region with a scarcity of hot Neptunes, and the Neptunian Savanna, where these planets are more commonly found.
Environment - Earth Sciences - 22.08.2024

Climate change is particularly intense in the Arctic. To assess its consequences and determine what role this region plays in global warming, two teams of scientists from EPFL have visited the area. One to gain a better understanding of the region's air composition, the other to quantify the greenhouse gases sequestered in Greenland fjords sourced by glacial water.
Astronomy / Space - Earth Sciences - 20.08.2024

Most of a planet's water is generally not on its surface but hidden deep in its interior. This affects the potential habitability of distant worlds, as shown by model calculations of researchers at ETH Zurich and Princeton University. We know that the Earth has an iron core surrounded by a mantle of silicate bedrock and water (oceans) on its surface.
Environment - Earth Sciences - 08.08.2024

Catastrophic volcanic eruptions that warmed the planet millions of years ago shed new light on how plants evolve and regulate climate. Researchers reveal the long-term climate effects of disturbed natural ecosystems - its implications both in geological history and for today. Scientists often seek answers to humanity's most pressing challenges in nature.
Environment - Earth Sciences - 08.08.2024

As a journalist, do you have general questions about PSI? Are you looking for an expert on your topic? Get in touch with our Taking off with sustainable kerosene Researchers around the world are working to find and optimise new ways of producing climate-neutral aviation fuel. At PSI, together with industry, they're exploring a promising approach.
Earth Sciences - Environment - 10.07.2024

An international research team led by Silvia Spezzaferri from the University of Freiburg has discovered why the Antarctic polar ice cap is melting faster on the western side of the continent than on the eastern side. New drillings and sophisticated modeling have shown that this phenomenon can be traced back to the original formation of the ice sheet 34 million years ago .