What really happened prior to 'Snowball Earth'?
In a study published in the journal Geology, scientists at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science suggest that the large changes in the carbon isotopic composition of carbonates which occurred prior to the major climatic event more than 500 million years ago, known as 'Snowball Earth,' are unrelated to worldwide glacial events. View More (2012-01-30)
Global warming caused by greenhouse gases delays natural patterns of glaciation, researchers say
Unprecedented levels of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are disrupting normal patterns of glaciation, according to a study co-authored by a University of Florida researcher and published online Jan. 8 in Nature Geoscience. View More (2012-01-09)
Early Earth may have been prone to deep freezes, says CU-Boulder study
Two University of Colorado Boulder researchers who have adapted a three-dimensional, general circulation model of Earth's climate to a time some 2.8 billion years ago when the sun was significantly fainter than present think the planet may have been more prone to catastrophic glaciation than previously believed. View More (2011-12-06)
Fossilized pollen reveals climate history of northern Antarctica
A painstaking examination of the first direct and detailed climate record from the continental shelves surrounding Antarctica reveals that the last remnant of Antarctic vegetation existed in a tundra landscape on the continent's northern peninsula about 12 million years ago. View More (2011-06-28)
Life after Snowball Earth
The first organisms to emerge after an ancient worldwide glaciation likely evolved hardy survival skills, arming themselves with tough exteriors to weather a frozen climate. View More (2011-06-16)
New research shows rivers cut deep notches in the Alps' broad glacial valleys
For years, geologists have argued about the processes that formed steep inner gorges in the broad glacial valleys of the Swiss Alps. View More (2010-12-06)
An ancient Earth like ours
An international team of scientists including Mark Williams and Jan Zalasiewicz of the Geology Department of the University of Leicester, and led by Dr. Thijs Vandenbroucke, formerly of Leicester and now at the University of Lille 1 (France), has reconstructed the Earth's climate belts of the late Ordovician Period, between 460 and 445 million years ago. View More (2010-08-10)
Weird orbits of neighbors can make 'habitable' planets not so habitable
Astronomers hunting for planets orbiting nearby stars similar to the sun are looking for signs of rocky, Earth-like planets in a "habitable" zone, where conditions such as temperature and liquid water remain stable enough to support life. View More (2010-05-25)
UCSB geologist discovers pattern in Earth's long-term climate record
In an analysis of the past 1.2 million years, UC Santa Barbara geologist Lorraine Lisiecki discovered a pattern that connects the regular changes of the Earth's orbital cycle to changes in the Earth's climate. View More (2010-04-07)
Scientists find signs of 'snowball Earth' amidst early animal evolution
Geologists have found evidence that sea ice extended to the equator 716.5 million years ago, bringing new precision to a "snowball Earth" event long suspected to have taken place around that time. View More (2010-03-05)
Genetics of an endangered animal species and its help to conservation plans
Scientists from the Biological Station of Doñana (CSIC) and the have characterized the population genetic diversity of an animal species (a mouse, in this case) in its whole distribution. This information is essential for developing successful conservation plans for such species. View More (2009-11-30)
California's Ancient Kelp Forest
The kelp forests off southern California are considered to be some of the most diverse and productive ecosystems on the planet, yet a new study indicates that today's kelp beds are less extensive and lush than those in the recent past. View More (2009-11-12)
Snail fossils suggest semiarid eastern Canary Islands were wetter 50,000 years ago
Fossil land snail shells found in ancient soils on the subtropical eastern Canary Islands show that the Spanish archipelago off the northwest coast of Africa has become progressively drier over the past 50,000 years. View More (2009-10-28)
Egg-shaped legacy of Britain's mobile ice-sheet
The ice sheets that sculpted the landscape of northern Britain moved in unexpected ways and left distinctive egg-shaped features according to new research. View More (2009-09-16)
Antarctic research helps shed light on climate change on Mars
Researchers examining images of gullies on the flanks of craters on Mars say they formed as recently as a few hundred thousand years ago and in sites once occupied by glaciers. The features are eerily reminiscent of gullies formed in Antarctica's mars-like McMurdo Dry Valleys. View More (2008-08-29)
Why is Greenland covered in ice?
There have been many reports in the media about the effects of global warming on the Greenland ice-sheet, but there is still great uncertainty as to why there is an ice-sheet there at all. View More (2008-08-28)
Glaciers Reveal Martian Climate Has Been Recently Active
The prevailing thinking is that Mars is a planet whose active climate has been confined to the distant past. About 3.5 billion years ago, the Red Planet had extensive flowing water and then fell quiet - deadly quiet. It didn't seem the climate had changed much since. View More (2008-04-24)
Low oxygen and molybdenum in ancient oceans delayed evolution of life by 2 billion years
A deficiency of oxygen and the heavy metal molybdenum in the ancient deep ocean may have delayed the evolution of animal life on Earth by nearly two billion years, a study led by UC Riverside biogeochemists has found. View More (2008-03-27)
Evidence of glaciation in 'super greenhouse' world
Large ice-sheets existed on Earth about 91 million years ago, during one of the warmest periods since life began, an international team of scientists reports this week. View More (2008-01-11)
A warming climate can support glacial ice
New research challenges the generally accepted belief that substantial ice sheets could not have existed on Earth during past super-warm climate events. View More (2008-01-11)
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