Wednesday, 8 February, 2012

After earthquakes caused horrific tsunamis in Sumatra and Japan, we wonder where tsunamis get their power, how warning systems work, and what’s left after the cataclysm.

Earth’s orbit subtly changes over thousands of years, in complex cycles that affect the timing and delivery of sunlight to various regions of the globe. Climatologists have said that when this “Milankovitch cycle” warms the Arctic, it somehow warms the Antarctic. A new study finds that the cycle acts more directly.

Military technology supports atmospheric and ocean science! 1: a robot sub smart enough to find stuff in the deep ocean 2: a metal fish glides for weeks under the ice 3: an electric sinker-bobber that never needs recharging 4: a research jet that flies miles above airliners.

Are extreme heat, wicked cyclones and record rainfalls signs of climate change, or just more changes in the weather? Will warming eliminate record cold days? Will hurricanes get bigger?

How do the rocks move? What governs how long and violent an earthquake will be? Could the villain be a powder that forms between the grinding rocks? A new study could help explain why most earthquakes are tiny, but a few grow into monsters.

Aftershocks and triggered earthquakes both follow a large earthquake, and they don’t happen at random. Can lessons about the sequence and timing of quakes improve safety?

The ozone layer protects Earth from UV rays: Twenty-two years after a treaty to protect ozone, how is the layer doing? What has happened to the ozone hole above Antarctica?

4B years ago, the “late heavy bombardment” burned out all life — or not… High-temp bacteria could have survived in deep rocks.

400 years ago, Galileo discovered the moons of Jupiter. We discover water from 11 billion years ago, volcanoes at Titan, a moon of Saturn, and good reasons to shun light pollution.

Carbon tax never even got considered, but it may produce more carbon control at a lower price. Comparing carbon tax with cap and trade…