Two adjacent, brand-new houses – one was torn from its foundation by winds, the other stood strong. A mere $3,000 in building costs made the difference, including a simple wind-resistant measure: a front door that stays shut in a storm because it’s built to open outward rather than inward. The 95-mile-per-hour winds that blasted the [...]

When it comes to natural hazards, early warnings and preparedness are key, federal and local government officials stressed at the American Geophysical Union’s inaugural Science Policy Conference in Washington, DC, Tuesday. Marcia McNutt, director of the U.S. Geological Survey, spoke at a session on improving public safety. She told the scientists and policy makers in the [...]

A few inches of seashore loss per year is usually cause for alarm among coastal communities. This is nothing to the Alaskan inhabitants of Newtok, who have experienced as much as 100 lateral feet of shoreline loss in the same amount of time. Newtok is a small village about 490 miles west of Anchorage, Alaska, [...]

Author Katy Human is a science writer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, Colo. A smoke-related chemical may be a significant air pollutant in some parts of the world, especially in places where forest fires and other forms of biomass burning are common, according to new research. In a modeling study, scientists found [...]

People can misunderstand the science behind climate change, which in turn can lead to skepticism, said scientists and communicators at the fourth annual Climate Change Symposium, held 16 April at Northern Virginia Community College. They shared ideas about how to correct the often-misconstrued data about Earth’s changing climate. Callan Bentley, an assistant professor of geology [...]

Geologist, glaciologist and AGU Fellow Richard Alley came to Washington, D.C., on Thursday, 19 April, to preview the newest segments of his PBS series “Earth: The Operator’s Manual.” AGU Public Information Manager Peter Weiss attended the screening to see the new programs and speak to Alley about what it’s like to be a scientist taking on [...]

When populations expand, the demand for fresh water rises. And over the past two decades, population growth has contributed to a 6 percent decline in worldwide surface water, according to a new study. Only about one-third of one percent of all the water on Earth is usable fresh surface water, which includes lakes, rivers, and [...]

The ocean is filled with more plastics than previously thought, according to a new study. Tiny plastic fragments not only float on the ocean’s surface, but are also temporarily pushed beneath the top layer of water by the tumult caused by maritime winds, according to the new research. The higher the wind speed, and the [...]

More than 250 tornadoes struck the United States in the first three months of 2012, touching down along a corridor from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast. Residents need to be better prepared for these deadly twisters, say scientists and experts on severe weather and emergency preparedness. Ideally, tornadoes would be forecasted well before [...]

Italy’s Mount Etna has had a busy year doing what volcanoes do best — erupting and providing volcanologists and sightseers alike with a fiery show. Armed with a new technique to determine lava volumes, researchers can now add up the amount of material that made up the impressive volcanic displays last year. Mount Etna released [...]