Yedoma permafrost with the mighty ice masses and underlying river sediments in the Lena Delta. Photo: Janet Rethemeyer Arctic permafrost plays a significant role in global warming, climate scientists agree. Still under debate, however, is the amount of greenhouse...
The sun determines the space weather. Solar flares or coronal mass ejections have a wide variety of effects on Earth or in near-Earth space, from auroras to disruption of communications systems. Illustration: NASA About 9,200 years ago, a gigantic spectacle may have...
The world’s oceans absorb huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, especially in the polar regions, because the gas dissolves better in cold water. A large part of the carbon dioxide sinks into the deep sea where it is stored for a very long time....
Humpback whales belong to the family of rorquals, which, thanks to their extremely expandable mouth, can take in a huge gulp of water along with their prey. Photo: Dr. Michael Wenger The largest animals on earth — blue whales, fin whales and other baleen whales — feed...
The Greenland Ice Sheet is crisscrossed by meltwater streams like this one on the Russell Glacier in West Greenland. Photo: Coen Hofstede/AWI Rising temperatures are melting Greenland’s ice and glaciers, causing sea levels to rise. How fast and how much is yet...
