Research briefs

A new study goes deep into the Gulf of Alaska to examine the sixth-largest underwater landslide and investigate why a similar event hasn’t happened since.

New research has uncovered a feedback loop that may be accelerating the melting of the floating portions of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, pushing up global sea levels.

By studying a miniature version of the ground in the lab, scientists at the UvA Institute of Physics have demonstrated how earthquakes and landslides can be triggered by a small external shock wave.

A new statistical analysis of the interaction between El Niño and rising global temperatures due to climate change concludes that the approaching summer in the tropics has nearly a 7 in 10 chance of breaking records for temperature and humidity.

Research based on an analysis of November 2023’s Storm Ciaran suggests weather forecasts that use machine learning can produce predictions of similar accuracy to traditional forecasts faster, cheaper, and using less computational power.

Analysis of two decades of mooring observations and hydrographic data suggest the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation deep water limb in the North Atlantic has weakened.

Wildfires often spew plumes of toxic smoke, eroding decades of improvements in air quality. A new paper by Sally Picciotto at UC Berkeley School of Public Health analyses how the impact of wildfire smoke can have on human health and pregnancy.

At the end of March and the beginning of April 2024 a region across the Sahel and West Africa experienced extreme heat, with maximum temperatures in the Sahel reaching more than 45°C.

A recent study published in the PNAS shows that western Central Asia has experienced a long-term drying trend over the past 7,800 years.

A third of China’s urban population at risk of city sinking, new satellite data shows.