Scientists have uncovered the source of a mysterious 2021 tsunami that sent waves around the globe. In August 2021, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake hit near the South Sandwich Islands, creating a tsunami that rippled around the globe. The epicenter was 47 kilometers below the Earth’s surface — too deep to initiate a tsunami — and…

New research has upended the conventional wisdom that for a century has incorrectly guided the study of a toad listed as endangered in part of its range. Anne Devan-Song used spotlighting — shining a light in a dark spot and looking for eye reflections — to find large numbers of the eastern spadefoot toad. The…

A new understanding of how a microorganism produces methane and carbon dioxide could eventually allow researchers to manipulate how much of these important greenhouse gases escape into the atmosphere. «The microorganism Methanosarcina acetivorans is a methanogen that plays an important part in the carbon cycle, by which dead plant material is recycled back into carbon…

Tooth decay is a common and unfortunate problem for many of us, but two University of Otago studies show it is also an issue for other primates, as well as our fossil relatives and ancestors. Dr Ian Towle, the former Sir Thomas Sidey Postdoctoral Fellow in Otago’s Faculty of Dentistry, says cavities are often considered…

Two studies project the future of power supply and demand on the West Coast under different scenarios: one under climate change and another where power sources shift toward renewables and the climate follows historic trends. «The impacts of climate change and extreme weather events on the grid, mostly in the form of drought and heat…

Research revises estimates of glacial ice volume, suggesting that there is less ice in the world’s glaciers than previously thought. The findings have implications on freshwater and global sea level rise. The worldwide survey, published in Nature Geoscience, measures the velocity and depth of more than 250,000 mountain glaciers. The research revises earlier estimates of…

Scientists believe they have discovered the site of the biggest meteorite impact ever to hit the British Isles. Evidence for the ancient, 1.2 billion years old, meteorite strike, was first discovered in 2008 near Ullapool, NW Scotland by scientists from Oxford and Aberdeen Universities. The thickness and extent of the debris deposit they found suggested…

New research compares the biodiversity value of plants classed as ‘injurious weeds’ against those stipulated by DEFRA for pollinator targeted agri-environmental options. The findings show that the abundance and diversity of pollinators visiting weed species are far higher than DEFRA recommended plants. Dr Nicholas Balfour and Professor Francis Ratnieks compared the biodiversity value of plants…

In the deep waters that underlie the productive zones of the ocean, there is a constant rain of organic material called ‘marine snow.’ Marine snow behaves similarly to real snow: large flakes are rare and fall quickly while abundant smaller flakes take their time. Scientists have now discovered that precisely those features explain why small…

Researchers have shown how millions of years of climate change affected the range and habitat of modern birds, suggesting that many groups of tropical birds may be relatively recent arrivals in their equatorial homes. The researchers, from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, applied climate and ecological modelling to illustrate how the distribution of major…