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Santorini is one of the best-studied volcanic archipelagos in the world. An international drilling expedition has now for the first time used a scientific drill ship to explore and investigate the seafloor around the Greek volcanic island. The researchers have uncovered evidence of an underwater eruption in 726 CE, previously known only from historical records.

Coastal seas form a complex transition zone between the two largest CO2 sinks in the global carbon cycle: land and ocean. Ocean researchers have now succeeded for the first time in investigating the role of the coastal ocean in a seamless model representation. The team led by Dr. Moritz Mathis from the Cluster of Excellence for Climate Research CLICCS at Universität Hamburg and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon was able to show: The intensity of CO2 uptake is higher in coastal seas than in the open ocean.

Research team analyses organic material from the early Earth tracing its origin and composition To learn about the first organisms on our planet, researchers have to analyse the rocks of the early Earth. These can only be found in a few places on the surface of the Earth. The Pilbara Craton in Western Australia is one of these rare sites: there are rocks there that are around 3.5 billion years old containing traces of the microorganisms that lived at that time.

Research team discovers complex microbial communities in ecosystems over 3 billion years ago Microorganisms were the first forms of life on our planet. The clues are written in 3.5 billion-year-old rocks by geochemical and morphological traces, such as chemical compounds or structures that these organisms left behind.

Research team studies interaction of dust with boulders and discovers potentially anomalous rocks Our Earth's Moon is almost completely covered in dust. Unlike on Earth, this dust is not smoothed by wind and weather, but is sharp-edged and also electrostatically charged. This dust has been studied since the Apollo era at the end of the 1960s.

Microplastic fibers are settling substantially slower than spherical particles in the atmosphere How far microplastics travel in the atmosphere depends crucially on particle shape, according to a recent study by scientists at the University of Vienna and the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organisation in Göttingen: While spherical particles settle quickly, microplastic fibers stay in th eatmosphere much longer.

International research team measures isotopic composition of lunar rocks Their high Ti contents are ultimately believed to be derived from a distinct mineralogical layer formed as part of the unstable crystal pile that constituted the lunar interior following solidification of a magma ocean, shortly after Moon formation.

Geophysicists from Freie Universität Berlin among the researchers investigating human-induced earthquakes. It is common knowledge that humans have a big effect on the world and their natural environment. However, what may be less well-known is that humans can also induce earthquakes. Industrial activities such as geothermal energy production, fracking for oil and natural gas, and wastewater disposal can all lead to increased seismic activity that commonly takes the form of earthquakes.

Geologists from Heidelberg and Frankfurt simulate thermo-mechanical behaviour of a white schist from the Alps Movements of rocks from deep in the Earth to the surface could occur under different circumstances than previously thought, challenging our current understanding of plate tectonics and mountain-building.

Plants emit odours for a variety of reasons, such as to communicate with each other, to deter herbivores or to respond to changing environmental conditions. An interdisciplinary team of researchers from Leipzig University, the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) carried out a study to investigate how biodiversity influences the emission of these substances.

Researchers led by Göttingen University determine factors for chemical development in crater lakes on Earth In southern Germany just north of the Danube, there lies a large circular depression between the hilly surroundings: the Nördlinger Ries. Almost 15 million years ago, an asteroid struck this spot.

In a study published in the journal "Scientific Reports," researchers from the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment (SHEP) at the University of Tübingen show that early humans of the Middle Paleolithic had a more varied diet than previously assumed. The analysis of a site in the Zagros Mountains in Iran reveals that around 81,000 to 45,000 years ago, the local hominins hunted ungulates as well as tortoises and carnivores.

In a study recently published in "Nature Water", the Analysis of Hydrological Systems group at the University of Potsdam, together with an international team, investigates the extent to which global water models agree with each other and with measured data. Using a new evaluation approach, the researchers can show in which climate regions the models agree and where they differ.

News from The Collaborative Research Centre "Arctic Amplification: Climate Relevant Atmospheric and Surface Processes and Feedback Mechanism (AC)³", which is headed by meteorologist Professor Manfred Wendisch from Leipzig University, is to enter its third funding phase. This was announced today (24 November 2023) by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Researchers improve measurement of the earth's rotation Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have succeeded in measuring the earth's rotation more exactly than ever before. The ring laser at the Geodetic Observatory Wettzell can now be used to capture data at a quality level unsurpassed anywhere in the world.

Up to now, the results of climate simulations have sometimes contradicted the analysis of climate traces from the past. A team led by the physicist Thomas Laepple from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Potsdam and the climatologist Kira Rehfeld from the University of Tübingen has therefore brought together experts in climate models and climate tracks to clarify how the discrepancies come about.

A research team led by the Department of Biology at Éniversität Hamburg has discovered, for the first time, the predatory amphipod Rhachotropis abyssalis in 3 different oceans up to 20,000 kilometers apart. In each case, the animals live at depths of more than 3 kilometers. The findings were published in the journal Scientific Reports .

Climate research: New findings on temperature tipping points Climate researchers around the world are sounding the alarm about exceeding critical temperature values on the Earth. If temperatures pass what are called tipping points, the results could be catastrophic. An international team of researchers, including members from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), has now demonstrated in simulations that the temperature tipping point for the Greenland ice sheet can be exceeded in certain cases for a short time, as long as extreme countermeasures are taken afterwards.

They were formed on the Moon more than three billion years ago, brought back to the Earth about 50 years ago, and recently arrived on the campus of the University of Bayreuth: samples of Moon rocks collected by NASA Apollo missions 16 and 17. The US national space agency has made them available to the Bavarian Research Institute of Experimental Geochemistry and Geophysics (BGI) of the University of Bayreuth for scientific investigations.

Research team led by Göttingen University describe early occurrence of irregular sea urchins in the depths of the oceans Right at the bottom of the deep sea, the first very simple forms of life on earth probably emerged a long time ago. Today, the deep sea is known for its bizarre fauna. Intensive research is being conducted into how the number of species living on the sea floor have changed in the meantime.