Warming could nearly double rate of severe La Niña events
Science News, January 2015Thanks to climate change, El Niño’s meteorological sister will strike more intensely over the next century, a new study predicts.
Young asteroids generated long-lasting magnetism
Science News, January 2015Ancient meteorites reveal that young asteroids may have generated powerful magnetic fields for hundreds of millions of years longer than once thought. The finding could explain long-lasting magnetism elsewhere in the early solar system, such as on the young moon.
Faulty thermometers exaggerated western U.S. mountain warming
Science News, January 2015Observations of sharply rising high-elevation temperatures in the western United States were caused by faulty equipment, not climate change, new research suggests.
Warming climate will force airlines to shed weight, increase costs
Science News, January 2015More frequent sweltering summer days will force commercial aircraft to go on a diet, new research suggests.
Allergy-related Google searches follow pollen season ups and downs
Science News, January 2015Web searches about runny noses and allergy medications can help researchers track changes in pollen count, new research suggests.
Stalled global warming linked to North American drought
Science News, January 2015The extreme winds blamed for putting the brakes on global warming may also have contributed to the record-setting drought currently parching the southwestern United States, suggests new research presented January 5 at the American Meteorological Society’s annual meeting.
South Napa earthquake revived bone-dry streams
Science News, December 2014The South Napa earthquake that rattled Northern California in August shook roughly a billion liters of groundwater out of nearby hills, new research suggests.
Super typhoon shoved supersized boulder
Science News, December 2014When Typhoon Haiyan made landfall in the Philippines in November 2013, its waves shoved a boulder weighing more than 25 adult African elephants. The boulder is the most massive known rock shifted by a storm, geoscientist Max Engel of the University of Cologne in Germany reported December 16 at the American Geophysical Union’s fall meeting.
Alcatraz escapees could have made it safely to shore
Science News, December 2014Three inmates who escaped from Alcatraz in 1962 and set off into the San Francisco Bay on a makeshift raft could have safely reached shore if they timed their escape just right, new research suggests.
Year in review: Tectonics active on Europa
Science News, December 2014A frozen world hundreds of millions of kilometers away is starting to look a bit like home. This year researchers discovered active plate tectonics reshaping the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. The finding marks the first evidence of active plate tectonics on another world (SN: 10/4/14, p. 10).