4/10/2025: Corals grow in cold water where methane seeps

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Photograph: Dry tundra grass crumbles where it meets the Arctic ocean. Permafrost is visible in the soil of broken edges. Grey sky in background and grey water to the right.

Coastal bluffs at Drew Point, on Alaska’s coastal plain, can erode 20 meters per year. As soil melts, storm waves may bite abrupt and unpredictable chunks out of the coastline.
Credit: U.S. Geological Survey.

Featured Research

Coldwater corals thrive near methane cold seeps
Most corals live in sunny, oxygen-rich waters off tropical coasts. But in the dark, cold, low-oxygen depths of Norway’s Hola trough, corals coexist with methane cold seeps bubbling up from gas hydrates frozen in the ocean floor. A new study suggests a “delicate equilibrium” of diverse microbial life, dissolved organic carbon and biochemical mechanisms associated with the seeps in the low oxygen depths benefit the corals. Further warming could release a burst of methane, upsetting that balance. [Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences study]

Storms will eat Alaska’s Arctic coastal tundra in increasingly unpredictable bites
New research from Point Hope, Alaska, finds large land losses are inevitable on the Arctic coastal plain along Alaska’s north coast. Predictable yearly coastal retreat will shift to sudden losses from extreme storms as thawing soil makes coastlines more vulnerable to waves and rising seas. Remote coastal Inupiat communities may need to step up timelines for adaptation or relocation. [Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface study]

Sailors’ historical accounts key to rare, glowing “milky seas”
Satellites have caught the mysterious milky waters lighting more than 100,000 square kilometers of open ocean, but the phenomenon is so rare that only a single scientific expedition has encountered it, leaving scientists in the dark about when, where and why it happens — and if the leading bacterial suspect, Vibrio harveyi, is the true source of the eerie glow. A new global database assembles 400 years of eyewitness accounts with the aim of predicting future bioluminescent blooms.[Earth and Space Science study][CSU press release]

“Thirstwaves” are the new climate threat for US crops
Like heat waves, these can damage crops and ecosystems and increase pressure on water resources. New research shows they’re becoming more severe. [Eos research spotlight][Earth’s Future study]

Restoring preindustrial CO2 levels won’t bring back all Arctic sea ice. This may make North Atlantic winter weather weird.
Incomplete Arctic sea ice recovery results in equatorward-shifted winter jets. The North Atlantic jet shift is particularly uncertain due to the ocean circulation acting as an additional driver. [Eos Editors’ highlight][Geophysical Research Letters study]

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1/8/2024: People, power lines ignite more wildfires in US West

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Satellite image of wildfire burning in a forest and smoke plume.

Aging power utility lines ignited the Camp Fire near Paradise, California on 8 November 2018, captured by the Operational Land Imager on Landsat 8. Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

 

People and power lines are starting more wildfires in tinder-dry West
Large wildfires have increased in the western U.S. in the last 50 years. Identification of the causes of ignition has not kept pace. More than 50% of wildfires now have unknown sources — a problem for prevention. A new study used machine learning to retroactively assign causes to 150,247 wildfires that ignited from 1992 to 2020, finding increasing trends for firearms, fireworks and power infrastructure. [Earth’s Future study]

Where the chickens are: High density farms cluster in socially vulnerable areas of North Carolina and Southeast US
Waste from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) accumulates in heaps and lagoons and is sprayed over nearby farmland, creating nasty health hazards for local people. Poultry farms are mostly unregulated in poultry powerhouse North Carolina, making environmental impacts difficult to assess. A new study maps these operations from space to identify who has to live with the chicken poo: primarily regions with low socioeconomic status. [GeoHealth study]

Vulcan-like exoplanets could be habitable
Some terrestrial planets with extreme internal heating, like Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io, can have solid surfaces and surface temperatures suitable for life. [Journal of Geophysical Research Planets study]

What lurks beneath the Antarctic ice
A new model of the plumbing underlying the full Antarctic Ice Sheet aims to improve predictions of global sea level rise. [Geophysical Research Letters study]

Rivers meandering faster on the Tibetan Plateau
Warmer temperatures are releasing the sinuous rivers of the “third pole” from their existing channels, speeding the migration rates of permafrost rivers by 34.6% from 1987 to 2022 through the combined effects of higher water discharge, ground ice melt and an additional 35 thawing days each year. [Geophysical Research Letters study]

Antarctic ice melt may fuel eruptions of hidden volcanoes
More than 100 volcanoes lurk beneath the surface in Antarctica. Ice sheet melt could set them off.[Eos research spotlight] [Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems study]

Will the volcanoes of Germany’s Eifel Mountains erupt again?
New processing strategies applied to old seismic data reveal potential pockets of magmatic fluids or melts from the upper mantle. [Eos research spotlight] [Geophysical Research Letters study]

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5/22/2024: Earth’s high mountains drying since the 1970s

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photograph of sunrise over mountain peaks. In the foreground, two people climb a scree field with cliffs to the left and a small peak to the right.

Sunrise on the Loft, Longs Peak, Rocky Mountain National Park.
Credit: Ryan Carpenter/NPS CC BY-ND

AGU News

WaterSciCon press registration open
Registration is open for the Water Science Conference, a collaboration of AGU and the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI) convening 24-27 June in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The program features the confluence of science, policy and community and sessions coupling research to applied workshops. Interested reporters and press officers should email [email protected] with credentials. [press information][scientific program][eligibility]

Featured Research

Rockies and Ethiopian Highlands most vulnerable to high elevation drying trend
The air and soil of most mountain ranges worldwide have dried significantly since the 1970s due to warming temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns driven by climate change. The Rocky Mountains and Ethiopian Highlands have seen the most critical drying, with both atmospheric and soil aridity increasing by 13% across all elevation gradients. [Earth’s Future research]

More frequent winter warm spells threaten snowpack in western US and Canada
In western North American, warms spells —three or more days of unseasonably warm temperature highs — account for 49% of snow loss in winter. The loss occurs during a small window of time, only 0.6 days on average. But climate change is projected to make winter warm spell three times more frequent in humid regions, increasing snow loss by 147%, and stressing water supplies for many communities. [Water Resources Research]

Low carbon emission pathway halves future anthropogenic mercury pollution
Burning fossil fuels, especially coal, releases mercury, a toxin with severe health consequences for people and wildlife. High carbon emissions scenarios release mercury at present-day levels through 2060. On the low emissions pathway, the mercury peak will come at 2030 and decline faster. The cost of delay is compounded by re-emission of mercury deposited on land and in oceans. [Earth’s Future research]

Nature-based carbon removal strategies most popular, least effective
To achieve net zero carbon, countries will need to remove carbon dioxide that has already been released to the atmosphere. German researchers assessed 14 carbon removal options for technological, legal and institutional readiness, economic and environmental impact, and public perception. Removal potential is small compared to the size of the problem, underlining the need to reel back emissions now.  [Earth’s Future research]

Red-light-loving bacteria could expand the search for life
Most stars in our galaxy are red dwarfs, which emit far-red light. Whether they can fuel significant oxygen-generating photosynthesis is unknown. Scientists are uncovering genes responsible for oxygenic photosynthesis in cyanobacteria to shift the search for potentially habitable worlds. [Eos news highlight][Astrobiology Science Conference abstract]

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5/16/2024: Farming seas wisely brings ecological benefits

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A new paper in Earth’s Future examines the inputs and outputs, costs and benefits of three categories of ocean farming: human fed (fish, crustaceans), sunlight fed (seaweed) and “unfed” (shellfish).
Credit: Liu et al. (2024) Earth’s Future https://doi.org/10.1029/2023EF003766

AGU News

WaterSciCon press registration open
Registration is open for the Water Science Conference, a collaboration of AGU and the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI) convening 24-27 June in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The program features the confluence of science, policy and community and sessions coupling research to applied workshops. Interested reporters and press officers should email [email protected] with credentials. [press information][scientific program][eligibility]

Featured Research

Streams lose year-round flow in California
A survey of stream gauges in dry regions of California found 13% of 158 minimally-disturbed streams had lost perennial flow — a sign of the drying influence of a warming climate. Streams burdened by human development are generally drying faster but, in some cases, regulation has made water flow perennially in previously ephemeral streams. [Water Resources Research]

Landslides mark “recent” tectonic activity on Mars
In western Arabia Terra, Mars, a long fault system shows signs of repeated activity during the last 2 billion years, a time when the Red Planet was thought to have little tectonic activity. Four landslides of different ages tumble to the crater floor, triggered by tectonic processes that shorten the crust, thrusting up a chunk of the surface and creating a scarp up to 700 meters high. The total displacement would require about 3,300 marsquakes of the magnitude observed in the modern era, the researchers calculated. [Geophysical Research Letters research]

Farming the seas wisely has ecological benefits
Mariculture employing seaweed rafts, deep fish cages and shellfish rafts, hanging cages, and bottom sowing could turn ecological burdens into benefits with strategic selection of species, technology and location. Case studies off the coast of China, the largest mariculture producer, demonstrate combining approaches can mitigate water contamination from intensive fish farming – and feed a lot of people. [Earth’s Future research][special issue on Environmental Constraints to Increasing Complexity in the Biosphere]

Auroras signal more oxygen on Jupiter’s largest moon, Ganymede
in 2021, the Juno spacecraft passed within 1,053 kilometers of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede, getting a close look at the flow of plasma and charged particles between the massive magnetosphere of the planet and the moon. All of that electron inflow from Jupiter excites a UV aurora in the thin atmosphere of the moon, suggesting it holds 10 times more oxygen than previously calculated, and that a unique oxygen-generation process may be in effect on the solar system’s icy moons. [JGR Planets research]

Alerting communities to hyperlocalized urban flooding
A high-accuracy, low-cost sensor network may change the way urban floods are detected and monitored. [Eos research spotlight][Water Resources Research]

The secret to mimicking natural faults? Plexiglass and Teflon
Researchers found an effective way to produce natural fault behavior in the laboratory. [Eos research spotlight] [Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth research]

Tiny satellites can provide significant information about space
Students and faculty at the University of Colorado Boulder use CubeSats to learn more about the near-Earth environment. [Eos research spotlight][AGU Advances research]

A new scheme to empower global air-conditioning energy modeling
An explicit air-conditioning adoption scheme and a global dataset improve urban energy demand modeling and unlock exciting capabilities in Earth system models. [Eos editors’ highlight][Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems research]

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5/09/2024: Peak melt for Everest’s East Rongbuk Glacier expected by 2060

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Photograph of rocks and ice fins in foreground; mountain in the background against blue sky and high clouds.

Ice pinnacles on the East Rongbuk Glacier with Mount Everest (also known by its Tibetan name Qomolangma or Nepali Sagarmatha) in the background.
Credit: Mark Horrell CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

AGU News

AGU announces Kristen Averyt, Ph.D., as new EVP, Science
Averyt joins AGU from the Executive Office of the President, Council on Environmental Quality, where she served as Director for Drought and Western Resilience. [press release]

Astrobiology Science Conference 2024 – this week!
Check out a new commentary revisiting the potential for life on Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus and related meeting sessions presented or chaired by the authors:

Press registration remains open through Friday, 10 May and grants access to session recordings viewable after the conference ends. To register, email [email protected] with your credentials. [media advisory and tips]

Solar Storms
Large geomagnetic storms are forecast for the weekend, emerging from a sunspot rivaling the source of the famous 1859 Carrington Event. Here’s some of the latest AGU science on space weather impacts:

Featured Research

Moisture trains deliver big snow to Antarctic ice sheet interiors
Spaceborne radar shows moisture arriving in atmospheric river-like systems at the southern continent, followed by extraordinary snowfall events over the Amundsen Sea, Ice Shelf and deep into the interior of the ice sheet. [JGR Atmospheres research]

Meltwater from Everest’s East Rongbuk climbing route will peak by 2060
Climbers on Everest’s northeast ridge route from Tibet follow the East Rongbuk Glacier to Camp 1 at the North Col. Researchers picked the relatively well-measured East Rongbuk to improve modeling of ice dynamics and predictions of future change for glacier “water towers” that supply critical water needs for mountain communities. The glacier will continually lose mass this century, the study found, with annual meltwater volume peaking around 2060 if high greenhouse gas emissions continue.  [Earth’s Future research]

Can ice melt on the surface of present-day Mars?
Unlikely, according to new research that applies recent advances in modeling turbulent air flow on Earth to the Red Planet to estimate how fast ice sublimates to gas on the cold surface — and if any conditions would allow for liquid water. The model has applications to simulating surface conditions on earth Earth, Titan, or exoplanets. [JGR Planets research]

How mantle movements shape Earth’s surface
Two new data sets help researchers tease apart the influences of plate tectonics and mantle movement on surface topography. [Eos research spotlight][JGR Solid Earth research]

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5/01/2024: Climate change slows forest regrowth after wildfires

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Photograph: burned skeletons of trees on mountain slope against a partially cloudy sky.

Cedar Fire 2003 slow recovery, California
Credit: Flickr user slworking2

AGU News

Astrobiology Science Conference 2024: Press events and tipsheets now available
#AbSciCon24 is next week, and a schedule of press events and our tipsheets are now available. To register, email [email protected] with your credentials. Events are primarily online, but some events are hybrid, and talks will be recorded and viewable after the conference. [AbSciCon24 scientific program][media advisory]

Featured Research

Hot, dry conditions stymie forest recovery after wildfires
After a wildfire sweeps across a landscape, tree recovery is often critical for reestablishing ecosystems and stabilizing soils. But warmer, drier conditions in the U.S. are leading to lower tree regeneration rates after wildfires as compared to the 1980s and 1990s, a new study finds. Recovery may be depressed for five to seven years following a fire. [JGR Biogeoscience research]

Airline crew radiation exposure should be individually monitored
Commercial airlines typically fly at high altitudes, where there is more exposure to radiation, putting flight crews at higher risk. A new study measured radiation dose rates on 45 flights and found that while radiation levels did not exceed the international health standard, adding individual radiation dosimeters could improve monitoring. [Space Weather research]

Retreating glaciers cause catastrophic Himalayan hazard chain
Warming from climate change can make glaciers retreat more quickly and generate more meltwater. Such conditions can create a catastrophic chain of events: ice collapses and begins to flow downhill, accumulating water, ice and rocks. That debris flow can travel for kilometers, causing damage and instability. [Geophysical Research Letters research]

Climate change fueled eastern heatwaves and western flooding in Asia
Summer 2022 brought deadly floods to western Asia, while eastern Asia sweltered through the worst extended heatwave in 70 years. An unusually strong western Pacific subtropical high caused the heat dome in the east and moisture convergence in the west, a new study finds. This pattern will likely intensify through the end of the century in this densely populated region. [Earth’s Future research]

Beneath the ice: Greenland’s geology revealed in new map
Advances in remote sensing offered an opportunity to redraw Greenland’s geologic map for the first time in 15 years. Some of the newly mapped structures offer insight into how ice flows from Greenland’s interior toward the coast. [Geophysical Research Letters research][Eos research spotlight]

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3/6/2024: Bottled water drinkers underestimate price markup over tap

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French bottled water, 2016. Credit: Raul Pacheco-Vega, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

AGU News

Register to attend the Triennial Earth-Sun Summit during the eclipse!
The Triennial Earth-Sun Summit (TESS) will be held 7-12 April in Dallas, Texas, in the path of totality. Scientific programming begins on 9 April, the day after the eclipse. To register, simply email us at [email protected]. Scientific sessions are on-site only. AGU’s housing is full. [TESS website][scientific program]

Featured Research

Bottled water drinkers underestimate price markup over tap
In France, bottled water costs 100 times the price of tap water. But bottled water drinkers are more likely than tap drinkers to perceive this gap to be much smaller, according to a new analysis of 4,003 survey responses. [Water Resources Research]

Canadian taiga will burn hotter and more frequently this century
Warming temperatures and drying can be expected to contribute to rising fire danger and severity throughout Canada’s coniferous forests through the end of century if greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated, a new study based on fire trends from 1976 to 2014 and the latest climate models finds. [JGR Atmospheres research]

Solar Orbiter predicts incoming solar storms
Bursts of plasma from the Sun called coronal mass ejections can damage Earth’s satellites and electric grids. Many of these problems can be avoided with warning of incoming storms, but current models aren’t good at forecasting arrival times and severity. Data from the Solar Orbiter demonstrated for the first time how spacecraft orbiting halfway between Earth and the Sun could improve forecast accuracy and precision, predict the evolution of geomagnetic storms and provide 40 hours of advance warning. [Space Weather research]

Extreme reservoir water drawdowns, accelerated by climate change, bring environmental drawbacks
Changing climate and water demands are causing more frequent extreme swings in water levels for many lakes, especially human-made reservoirs. A case study at Beaverdam Reservoir in Virginia, USA, tracked impacts on biology, chemistry and aquatic physics during a rapid 36% volume loss over only a single month. Nutrients concentrated at the surface, feeding an algae bloom that dropped oxygen levels as the bloom died. [JGR Biogosciences research]

Urban nature is often plentiful but inaccessible
A novel research framework deepens understanding of urban nature accessibility and highlights progress toward green space goals.. [Eos research spotlight][GeoHealth research]

Preparing to meet a metal-rich asteroid
The recently launched Psyche mission will explore the eponymous asteroid and determine whether it is a fragment of a planetary core or a primordial, metal-rich body. [Editors’ highlight][AGU Advances research]

Visit the AGU Newsroom to read about the latest science from AGU’s 25 journals, get updates about our organization, register for complimentary press access to AGU journals, and find topical experts. Update your subscription preferences.

AGU (www.agu.org) is a global community supporting more than half a million advocates and professionals in Earth and space sciences. Through broad and inclusive partnerships, AGU aims to advance discovery and solution science that accelerate knowledge and create solutions that are ethical, unbiased and respectful of communities and their values. Our programs include serving as a scholarly publisher, convening virtual and in-person events and providing career support. We live our values in everything we do, such as our net zero energy renovated building in Washington, D.C. and our Ethics and Equity Center, which fosters a diverse and inclusive geoscience community to ensure responsible conduct.

 

2/28/2024: First global subsidence map reveals sinking problem for cities

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Map shows global prediction of land subsidence, with relevant feature importance and zonal statistics at the top of the figure. Modeled subsidence rates for the entire globe (a), zoomed-in maps of land subsidence for North America (b), South America (c), Europe and North Africa (d), Middle East (e), and South, East, and South-East Asia (f).

Some of the fastest subsiding, or vertically sinking, places are home to large numbers of people. From figure 2 of Davydzenska et al 2024 Geophysical Research Letters https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL104497

AGU News

Register to attend the Triennial Earth-Sun Summit during the eclipse!
The Triennial Earth-Sun Summit (TESS) will be held 7-12 April in Dallas, Texas, in the path of totality. Scientific programming begins on 9 April, the day after the eclipse. To register, simply email us at [email protected]. Scientific sessions are on-site only. AGU’s housing is full. [TESS website][scientific program]

Featured Research

Electricity demand spikes emissions during heat waves
Emissions from the power sector have been underestimated by nearly 35% during heat waves in some cases, according to a new study that observed pulses of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide columns over power plants from space and attributed the spike to elevated electricity use. [Earth’s Future research]

Geoengineering strategy would bring severe drought to tropical Africa
Severe and lengthy droughts brought on by continued high emissions of greenhouse gases could be softened for most of Earth’s lands by injecting sulfate aerosols into the stratosphere. Aerosols scatter incoming sunlight back to space, cooling the planet overall. But a cost may be intensifying drying in some locations, especially tropical Africa. [JGR Atmospheres research]

First global subsidence map reveals sinking problem for cities
Around the world, an estimated 5% of land, or 6.3 million square kilometers, is sinking significantly, affecting 25% of the world’s population — nearly 2 billion people. Groundwater extraction contributes to this sinking problem and land is sinking fastest in Philippines, Iran, Costa Rica, Indonesia and Uzbekistan. [Geophysical Research Letters]

Recovery of Indian summer monsoon will lag behind CO2 removal
Warming has perturbed the regular arrival time of the Indian summer monsoon, risking food security for a billion local inhabitants. In an idealized future world in which carbon dioxide is removed from Earth’s atmosphere at the same rate humanity added it, the monsoon could return to preindustrial patterns, but heat stored in the deep oceans will delay recovery. [Earth’s Future research]

Anzali Wetland, Iran’s “ecological gem,” may dry up by 2060
More sustainable watershed management and agriculture are needed to avoid a desiccated fate. [Eos research spotlight][Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres research]

Plate boundaries may experience higher temperature and stress than we thought
Surface heat flux data shed light on conditions deep below Earth’s surface, at a tectonic plate interface where major earthquakes initiate.[Eos research spotlight] [Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems research]

Get updates about our organization, register for complimentary press access to AGU journals, and find topical experts. Update your subscription preferences.

AGU (www.agu.org) is a global community supporting more than half a million advocates and professionals in Earth and space sciences. Through broad and inclusive partnerships, AGU aims to advance discovery and solution science that accelerate knowledge and create solutions that are ethical, unbiased and respectful of communities and their values. Our programs include serving as a scholarly publisher, convening virtual and in-person events and providing career support. We live our values in everything we do, such as our net zero energy renovated building in Washington, D.C. and our Ethics and Equity Center, which fosters a diverse and inclusive geoscience community to ensure responsible conduct.

1/31/2024: Densest lightning on Earth occurs over sea, not land

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Dark thunderclouds are lit from within by lightning over a flat grey ocean.

Lightning off the coast of Cancun, Mexico. The largest thunderstorms, flaunting the biggest lightning megaflashes, frequent the Great Plains in North America and the eastern La Plata basin in South America, but the storms with the highest density of flashes occur over the ocean, mostly through the Gulf of Mexico and east of South Africa, a new study finds.
Credit: Keith Pomakis, CC BY-SA 2.5

AGU News

Press registration open for Ocean Sciences Meeting
Browse nearly 5,000 abstracts for #OSM24, held 18-23 February in New Orleans. [OSM24 scientific program][OSM24 press registration][press release]

Register to attend the Triennial Earth-Sun Summit during the eclipse!
The Triennial Earth-Sun Summit (TESS) will be held 7-12 April in Dallas, Texas, in the path of totality. Scientific programming begins on 9 April, the day after the eclipse. To register, simply email us at [email protected]. Scientific sessions are on-site only. AGU’s housing is full. [TESS website][scientific program]

Featured Research

Small farm irrigation ponds have big evaporative losses in Europe’s water-stressed regions
In Italy, Spain and Portugal, the number of reservoirs smaller than 100 square meters have doubled in the last two decades. Hotter temperatures are driving both rising demand for stored irrigation water and increasing losses to evaporation, according to a study that finds nearly 40% of the water capacity in the ponds evaporates. [Earth’s Future research]

Densest lightning on Earth occurs over sea, not land
A new class of extreme thunderstorm claims the title for most frequent lightning concentrated in a small area — some flashing so fast they would appear continuously lit to the human eye. These compact “lightning-dense” storms were previously underappreciated because their lightning flashes in a tempo too quick for accurate measurement by automated detection systems. Strong updrafts rivaling the most powerful thunderstorms on Earth drive the high flash rate, but unlike the largest thunderstorms, they occur over the ocean. [Earth and Space Science research]

13,000 barriers fragment Mekong Rivers’ rich habitat
The Mekong River basin in Southeast Asia is one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet, but dams and other waterway barriers can cause ecologically damaging habitat fragmentation. A new study finds more than 10,000 previously undocumented such barriers, suggesting a greater degree of habitat fragmentation than known. [Water Resources Research research]

Measuring methane stemming from tree stems
Wetland tree stem emissions have emerged as a significant contributor to the global methane budget. A new study tracks how they vary by season, location, and hydrological conditions. [Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences research] [Eos research spotlight]

Deep learning tackles deep uncertainty about future sea levels
A new method based on artificial intelligence could help accelerate projections of polar ice melt and future sea level rise. [Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems research] [Eos editors’ highlight]

A dust-up over dust underestimations
Dust has significant impacts on the environment, climate, air quality, and human health, yet dust events are underestimated and therefore do not receive the level of attention necessary. [GeoHealth research][Eos editors’ highlight]

Get the latest science from AGU’s 25 journals in your inbox. Update your AGU News subscription preferences.

AGU (www.agu.org) is a global community supporting more than half a million advocates and professionals in Earth and space sciences. Through broad and inclusive partnerships, AGU aims to advance discovery and solution science that accelerate knowledge and create solutions that are ethical, unbiased and respectful of communities and their values. Our programs include serving as a scholarly publisher, convening virtual and in-person events and providing career support. We live our values in everything we do, such as our net zero energy renovated building in Washington, D.C. and our Ethics and Equity Center, which fosters a diverse and inclusive geoscience community to ensure responsible conduct.

1/17/2024: What we don’t know about drinking water contamination

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Close-up view of hands surrounding a pine tree seedling freshly planted in wood mulch.

Caption: Forests are big carbon sinks, but not big enough to mitigate the effects of continuing high carbon emissions, researchers report in JGR Biogeosciences.
Credit: Pacific Southwest Forest Service USDA

AGU News

Nominate yourself or a colleague for AGU’s 2024 Journalism Awards
Awards for news and feature writing honor outstanding reporting in the Earth and space sciences published in the previous year (2023). Self-nominations are encouraged. The deadline is 27 March 2024 at 11:59 p.m. ET. [press release]

Book housing for the Ocean Sciences Meeting by 24 January
Browse nearly 5,000 abstracts for #OSM24, held 18-23 February in New Orleans, and register with housing before the housing deadline on 24 January. [OSM24 scientific program][OSM24 press registration][press release]

Featured Research

Drying, not just dry weather, will dry out central US
Climate change will bring water shortages to many parts of the United States, but today’s least rainy regions are not always the most at risk. Heat-driven evaporation from soil and plants may be a bigger future problem than lack of rain for northern Midwest states, according to a new analysis of water vulnerability and its sources across the contiguous states under high and low carbon emissions. [Geophysical Research Letters research]

Known unknowns and unknown unknowns of drinking water contamination
A review explores the state of the science on “contaminants of emerging concern,” an ever-expanding class of potential chemical and biological hazards, and how future changes in weather, population and demographics could complicate the availability of potable water. [GeoHealth review]

Forestation is not enough to cool the planet
Growing trees can bank a lot of carbon, but not enough to significantly mitigate global warming through carbon dioxide removal if carbon emissions remain high. [JGR Biogeosciences research]

How heat rises through Europa’s ocean
A new study examines how heat may be transferred from the mantle, through the ocean, and into the icy crust of Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons — perhaps among the most promising places in our solar system to search for life. [Eos research spotlight][AGU Advances research]

Glaciers rise and fall — and melt — with tides
The effect of ocean water creeping beneath Greenland ice is stronger than scientists realized. [Eos research spotlight][Geophysical Research Letters research]

Plants reveal the history of Earth’s largest tropical ice cap
Rooted plants buried by advancing outlet glaciers illustrate rapid changes in the extent of Quelccaya Ice Cap in Peru during the Holocene. [Eos editors’ highlight][JGR Earth Surface research]

Subscribe to AGU News or update your subscription preferences.

AGU (www.agu.org) is a global community supporting more than half a million advocates and professionals in Earth and space sciences. Through broad and inclusive partnerships, AGU aims to advance discovery and solution science that accelerate knowledge and create solutions that are ethical, unbiased and respectful of communities and their values. Our programs include serving as a scholarly publisher, convening virtual and in-person events and providing career support. We live our values in everything we do, such as our net zero energy renovated building in Washington, D.C. and our Ethics and Equity Center, which fosters a diverse and inclusive geoscience community to ensure responsible