Earth Sciences

A collaboration between Osaka City University and Setsunan University sheds light on the effect urbanization has on the flesh fly species Sarcophaga similis. Through a series of laboratory and in-field experiments, scientists show that an increase in nighttime illumination and temperature, two of the major characteristics of urbanization, can postpone S. similis hibernation anywhere from 3 weeks to a month.

An international team of scientists say that tigers could come roaring back in an unlikely place: northeastern China.

Using a CeO2 catalyst, researchers develop an effective catalytic process for the direct synthesis of polycarbonate diols without the need for dehydrating agents. The high yield, high selective process has CO2 blown at atmospheric pressure to evaporate excess water by-product allowing for a catalytic process that can be used with any substrate with a boiling point higher than water.

Scientists in Singapore are calling for revisions in planned hydropower expansions in light of the rapidly decreasing cost of solar photovoltaic systems

A new study monitored satellite images to obtain sea discoloration data as a novel indicator in detecting if an underwater volcano’s eruption is imminent.

Scientists show that an ocean-bottom seismometer deployed close to the calving front of a glacier in Greenland can detect continuous seismic radiation from a glacier sliding, reminiscent of a slow earthquake.

Japan recorded a whopping 3459 #landslides in 2018. To reduce the risks of landslides, researchers have developed a new #mapping system that accurately predicts their damage.

Researchers from The University of Tokyo Institute of Industrial Science develop a flood forecasting system that could help protect people and property during typhoons

Coral insights into 1,000 years of seasonal changes in the Arabian Sea warn of significant impacts caused by global warming.

Scientists have uncovered a summertime climate pattern in and around the Arctic that could drive co-occurrences of European heatwaves and large-scale wildfires with air pollution over Siberia and subpolar North America.

Carbon degassed from planetary mantles by volcanic activity plays an important role in the planetary surface environment. However, how the carbon content in the Earth’s mantle was established is still poorly understood. Here we show that the mantle of planetary embryos may have been nearly saturated with carbon by new high-pressure experiments and pointed out that the carbon solubility of magma is very consistent with the estimated carbon contents in terrestrial and lunar mantles.

Landslide tsunamis are difficult to simulate because of the complex interaction between soil and water. But now, researchers from Tohoku University have come up with a hybrid numerical method that allows for relatively accurate simulations.

Images from the Akatsuki spacecraft unveil why Venus’s atmosphere rotates much faster than its surface.

Tomohiro Mochizuki tracks down viruses inside single-cell organisms thriving in boiling hot springs. His fieldwork is conducted in relatively extreme environments and, despite the significance of his investigations, he doesn’t need many fancy gadgets back at his lab at Japan’s Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI). ARN asked Mochizuki about his virus-hunting exploits and what they involve.

“By looking at substances in volcanos, lakes and hotsprings, you can start to see the ecosystems that existed billions of years ago,” says Mayuko Nakagawa, a microbiologist and specially-appointed assistant professor at the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) based at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan. She analyses components left by microorganisms with colleagues from various disciplines, while as a lab manager, she looks after cutting-edge equipment and visitors from different countries.

Earth scientist Hitoshi Gomi investigates how plants are made by studying materials from the deep Earth, while creating a hospitable workplace at the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan. He shared his research and the role of a lab manager with Asia Research News.

地球の中心部の物質を研究しながら、共に研究をしている仲間が働きやすい環境を作るのが五味斎特任助教の日常だ。所属先の東京工業大学・地球生命研究所(ELSI)で地球科学者として行う研究活動と、ラボマネージャーの役目について、お話しを伺った。

Ice is melting at a surprisingly fast rate underneath Shirase Glacier Tongue in East Antarctica due to the continuing influx of warm seawater into the Lützow-Holm Bay.

Deep sea animals face greater risks compared to those nearer the surface as they become less able to maintain their preferred thermal habitats with climate change.

A stable isotope of helium, 3He, was produced by the Big Bang and a remnant of the solar nebula. 3He is included in ocean island basalts, such as in Hawaiian volcanos, indicating it has been stored somewhere in the deep Earth and carried up to the surface in upwelling plumes. New computer simulations demonstrate that even in small amounts, helium can be dissolved in liquid iron at ultrahigh-pressure conditions, suggesting that there is a reservoir in the Earth’s core.

An international research team has unearthed more about the crustal growth history of the Central African shield—one of the oldest continental pieces on the planet that formed part of the supercontinent Columbia.

A research team, led by researchers from Tohoku University, has defined the events that punctuated the crustal history Northeast Japan. Their study has revealed the main ages of the events that shaped the geological roots of Japan.

A person who owns a car or who has a college education may be less vulnerable to COVID-19, according to an analysis of cases in Tehran, Iran, one of the early epicenters of the pandemic. While such variables do not inherently lower a person’s risk, they do indicate an infrastructure of protection that persists despite how densely populated a person’s district might be.

Hokkaido University researchers have clarified different causes of past glacial river floods in the far north of Greenland, and what it means for the region’s residents as the climate changes.

“The earth is suffering from several ‘diseases’: global warming, ocean acidification, habitat loss, etc. If any of these diseases remains uncured, other diseases will accelerate and cause new ones to appear, hence putting humanity’s well-being in danger,” said Associate Professor Masahiko Fujii. For this reason, the research staff of the Faculty of Environmental Earth Science keeps on assessing the current global environmental issues and promoting renewable energy sources as a possible solution.

Researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo calculate sources of uncertainty in flood risks to improve global flood predictions

Tokyo summers are notorious for their sweltering heat and humidity. Scientists have found that the meandering Kuroshio Current may be the cause of increasing hot and humid summers in the Kanto region.

A study led by scientists at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) has decoded the genomes of the deep-sea clam (Archivesica marissinica) and the chemoautotrophic bacteria (Candidatus Vesicomyosocius marissinica) that live in its gill epithelium cells. Through analysis of their genomic structures and profiling of their gene expression patterns, the research team revealed that symbiosis between the two partners enables the clams to thrive in extreme deep-sea environments.

For the first time, scientists have succeeded in continuous monitoring of a subglacial discharge plume, providing a deeper understanding of the glacier-fjord environment.

A 2020 explosion in Lebanon’s port city of Beirut led to a southward-bound, high-velocity atmospheric wave that rivaled ones generated by volcanic eruptions.