Abandoned hardrock mines and climate change cause metals and other elements to leach into streams. They also put rare earth elements into the water, a new study finds.
Earth science
Posted inNews
For Venice’s Floodgates to Work, Better Forecasts Are Needed
Climate change increases massive storm surges, which may be more than Venice’s flood-control system can handle.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Newly Improved Solar Spectral Irradiance Composite Record
A new study accurately captures solar irradiance, which is crucial to understand the energetics and radiation balance of Earth and its influences on the cryosphere, atmosphere, and ocean currents.
Posted inFeatures
Adapting to Receding Glaciers in the Tropical Andes
Integrated approaches are needed to understand and respond to changes in tropical mountain ecosystems and communities brought about by receding glaciers and changes in land use.
Posted inNews
Greener, Wetter Arabia Was a Crossroads of Early Human Migration
Hand axes, hippo bones, and a stack of ancient lake beds show that arid Arabia experienced intervals of humid weather, spurring pulses of human migration over the past 400,000 years.
Posted inNews
Drone Rules Make Tracking Down Faults a Difficult Feat
Regulations differ from country to country, but on one point, they’re relatively uniform: Drones must remain within their operators’ line of sight. How do earthquake scientists collect drone data while working within the rules?
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Mechanisms of Hydrothermal Ocean Plate Cooling Revealed
A combination of waveform tomography and hydrothermal modelling allows characterizing the mechanisms and reach of fluid flux and ocean plate cooling near mid-ocean ridges with unprecedented detail.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Temperature Extremes: Exploring the Global Outbreak
Using cutting-edge observations, reanalyses, and climate models, a new study projects the outbreak of temperature extremes over new global areas by 2100.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Evaluating the Impact and Reach of Biogeochemical Cycles
A new book examines flow of the elements in the biosphere from biological drivers to human influences, and explores the analytical and computational methods used to access biogeochemical cycles.
Posted inScience Updates
A New Focus on the Neglected Carbonate Critical Zone
Studies of Earth’s critical zone have largely focused on areas underlain by silicate bedrock, leaving gaps in our understanding of widespread and vital carbonate-dominated landscapes.