Deep-sea hydrothermal vents more abundant than thought

 Science News, June 2016

The deep, dark ocean bottom teems with far more oases of life than once thought. Searching along the sunless seafloor where tectonic plates pull apart, regions known as spreading ridges, researchers discovered that heat-spewing hydrothermal vents are at least three to six times as abundant as previously assumed. The finding also significantly boosts the likely number of marine ecosystems huddled around vents, the researchers report in the Sept. 1 Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

Long-lost ‘extinct’ meteorite found

 Science News, June 2016

A long-lost sibling to one of Earth’s most common kinds of meteorite has finally been found. The discovery could help scientists piece together a half-billion-year-old hit-and-run, the researchers propose online June 14 in Nature Communications.

A third of the population can’t see the Milky Way at night

 Science News, June 2016

At night, a river of stars cuts through the dense darkness of space. These celestial bodies form our galaxy’s core and their soft glow earned our galaxy the moniker “Milky Way.” But for more than a third of Earth’s population, the glare of artificial lights conceals this cosmic wonder from view, researchers report June 10 in Science Advances. Nearly 80 percent of North Americans and 60 percent of Europeans can no longer see the galactic core at night, the researchers estimate.

Volcanic rocks help turn carbon emissions to stone — and fast

 Science News, June 2016

A new technique turns climate-warming carbon emissions to stone. In a test program in Iceland, more than 95 percent of the carbon dioxide injected into basaltic lava rocks mineralized into solid rock within two years. This surprisingly fast transformation quarantined the CO2 from the atmosphere and could ultimately help offset society’s greenhouse gas emissions, scientists report in the June 10 Science.

Spy satellites reveal early start to Antarctic ice shelf collapse

 Science News, June 2016

The biggest ice shelf collapse on record was set in motion years earlier than previously thought, new research reveals. Analyzing declassified images from spy satellites, researchers discovered that the downhill flow of ice on Antarctica’s Larsen B ice shelf was already accelerating as early as the 1960s and ’70s. By the late 1980s, the average ice velocity at the front of the shelf was around 20 percent faster than in the preceding decades, the researchers report in a paper to be published in Geophysical Research Letters.

U.S. weather has gotten more pleasant, but will soon worsen

 Science News, June 2016

Americans have climate change to thank for a decades-long spate of milder winters. Around 80 percent of U.S. residents live in counties where the weather has become more pleasant over the last four decades (see map). That trend won’t last, however: Researchers predict in the April 21 Nature that 88 percent of Americans will experience noticeably worse weather by 2100 than they do today.