21 February 2012
Barren marsh reveals plant-loss peril
When the plants go, the whole marsh falls apart. That’s what researchers have found in an innovative experiment in Belgium in which acres of reeds were literally mowed down, enabling the team to observe the consequences of extensive plant loss, which were more severe than expected.
9 February 2012
Cold fury of Europe’s freezing spells to fade
With bitter temperatures gripping much of Europe for the last two weeks, many in the Netherlands have been glued to the weather forecasts, hoping for the cold to continue. At stake was whether the ice would get thick enough to hold the traditional Elfstedentocht, a 125-mile, 11-city skating race across frozen canals and lakes. But by the end of the century Western Europe’s cold periods could be significantly warmer than they are now – by about 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit). That’s bad news for ice skating, since the average cold spell will be above freezing.
10 December 2011
Exoplanets with plate tectonics, better odds for life like Earth’s
Our Earth is a Goldilocks planet. It’s neither too cold nor too hot but right in the habitable zone. Add another parameter that’s needed to be just right to incubate life on our world: plate tectonics. A team of geophysicists is modeling conditions that favor cruising plates on planets outside of our solar system, known as exoplanets, which might clue scientists into which of those worlds harbor complex life. “We …
9 December 2011
Storing carbon dioxide underground impacts microbial communities
The threat of ballooning carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere puts us between a rock and a hard place, which is exactly where some people propose the gas should go.
Warmer weather makes some flowers late bloomers
Warmer temperatures have caused some flowers to bloom earlier — but the response isn’t universal. Several species have confounded scientists by showing their colors later in warmer spring weather. One possible explanation: Flowers that bloom later than expected are remembering warm winter weather, according to research presented Thursday afternoon at the American Geophysical Union’s Fall Meeting.
Stealthy but slipping: Researchers reveal slow-moving landslides in southern Italy
Disaster didn’t strike overnight in the town Motta Montecorvino, Italy. Rather, a slow-moving landslide is tearing the hilltop community apart a few painful centimeters a year. Leaning telephone poles and ominous cracks in walls tell the tale of a town sliding away.
Really cool but depressing science
The Arctic permafrost is a landscape of geometric wonder. Honeycombs of polygonal depressions are common in these far northern regions of Earth, echoing some observed on Mars. Scientists want to know what clues these depressions could provide about our own planet and how similar features could have formed on Mars.
Spacecraft detects lightning on Venus
The goddess Venus radiates beauty; the planet Venus radiates electromagnetic waves. These waves were picked up the Venus Express, a European satellite orbiting Earth’s nearby twin, and provide evidence of lightning in its atmosphere.
Photographing lava helps measure its flow from afar – safely
Some volcanoes erupt in violent explosions – think Mount St. Helens or Vesuvius – while others ooze more gradually, spewing out lava for weeks or months at a time. The lava has the potential to engulf homes and farm fields in its path, so scientists are interested in measuring the direction, speed and distance of flows.
Divining water using gravity
Researchers are using technology a tad more sophisticated and scientific than dowsing rods to detect underground water from afar: sensors that measure minuscule changes in gravity.
GeoSpace is a blog on Earth and space science, managed by AGU’s Public Information staff. The blog features posts by AGU writers and guest contributors on all sorts of relevant science topics, but with a focus on new research and geo and space sciences-related stories that are currently in the news. 
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