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24 May 2017
LA lawns lose 70 billion gallons of water a year
In summer 2010, Los Angeles was losing about 100 gallons of water per person per day to the atmosphere through the evaporation and plant uptake of lawns and trees, new research finds. Lawns accounted for 70 percent of the water loss, while trees accounted for 30 percent, according to a new study.
16 February 2017
Ancient cave reveals recent droughts in the Middle East were most severe for over a millennium
A stalagmite collected from a remote cave in the Middle East has revealed that recent droughts there were more severe than previously thought, and therefore possibly an important contributing factor for the turmoil in Syria. A research team traveled to Iraq to collect the stalagmite and used it to present the first ever detailed climate reconstruction of the Fertile Crescent extending back 2,400 years.
16 December 2016
How do you track the mass of a tree over time? Watch it move.
Dancing trees may be able to teach scientists about tree health during a drought, according to a new study.
18 October 2016
Soil moisture, snowpack data could help predict ‘flash droughts’
New research suggests “flash droughts” — like the one that unexpectedly gripped the Southern Rockies and Midwest in the summer of 2012 — could be predicted months in advance using soil moisture and snowpack data. Researchers analyzed the conditions leading up to the 2012 drought, which ultimately caused $30 billion in economic losses, looking for any warning signs that a drought was on the way.
30 August 2016
The demise of the Maya civilization: water shortage can destroy cultures
Something really drastic must have happened to the ancient Maya at the end of the Classic Period in the 9th Century. Within a short period of time, this advanced civilization in Central America went from flourishing to collapsing – the population dwindling rapidly and monumental stone structures, like the ones built at Yucatán, were no longer being constructed. The reason for this demise remains the subject of debate even today. Now, researchers at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) may have found the explanation: the irrigation technology that served the Mayans well during periods of drought may have actually made their society more vulnerable to major catastrophes.
2 June 2016
In desert suburb, homes in homeowners’ associations use less water, study finds
A new study finds that in a Phoenix suburb, homeowners’ associations are good for water conservation. According to the study, homes in HOAs in Goodyear, Arizona use up to 17,000 fewer liters of water (4490 gallons) in the peak month of July compared to their non-HOA counterparts, roughly the amount needed to fill eleven hot tubs.
23 September 2010
Dangerous dependence on virtual water deepens
The rate of global groundwater depletion has been on the rise, warning of a potential disaster for an increasingly globalized agricultural system says Marc Bierkens of Utrecht University in Utrecht, the Netherlands. In an upcoming study, Bierkens and his colleagues find that not only is global groundwater extraction outstripping its natural recharge rate, this disparity has been increasing. Groundwater represents about 30 percent of the available fresh water on the …
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.