New research suggests that release of methane from seafloor hydrates was much slower than hypothesized during a period of rapid global warming about 56 million years ago.
Sarah Stanley
Sarah Stanley, a freelance writer for Eos, has a background in environmental microbiology but covers a wide range of science stories for a variety of audiences. She has also written for PLOS, the University of Washington, Kaiser Permanente, Stanford Medicine, Gladstone Institutes, and Cancer Commons, a nonprofit that works with cancer patients.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Tremors Reveal the Structure of Deep Glacial Shafts
Seismic waves produced by free-falling meltwater could improve understanding of glacial drainage processes.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
How Do Gullies Form on Mars?
New orbiter data support an important role for seasonal frost—not liquid water—in the formation of Martian gullies.
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What Happens to Methane That Leaks from Abandoned Wells?
Three-dimensional simulations suggest that some aquifers may be more vulnerable to contamination from leaky oil wells than others.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Minerals Hint at Liquid Groundwater, More Oxygen in Mars's Past
Manganese deposits in Gale Crater fractures are similar to Earth features that usually require flowing water and highly oxidizing conditions.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
An Ancient Sea Once Separated the Pacific and Indian Oceans
Seafloor under the hypothesized East Asian Sea vanished 10 million years ago as surrounding plates swallowed it up, according to new reconstructions of plate tectonics in the Philippine Sea region.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
A New Mechanism for Nitrogen Cycling in the Southern Ocean
A nitrite-oxidizing enzyme may work in reverse for some microbes in the Antarctic autumn.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
How Irrigation in Asia Affects Rainfall in Africa
Up to 40% of the total rainfall in arid parts of East Africa may be caused by water vapor from farming practices in South Asia.
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In the Eastern Pacific Ocean, the "Blob" Overshadows El Niño
Underwater gliders and ocean modeling reveal unexpectedly weak El Niño effects on a major West Coast current.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Reconstructing Catastrophic Floods on Earth and Mars
A new theoretical model suggests that ancient floods that carved canyons on Earth and Mars may have been much smaller but lasted longer than previously thought.