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Heidelberg research team uses laser scanning and 3D drone data to study an ice-debris mixture in Tyrol A rock glacier in Tyrol - a downward flowing ice-debris mixture covering more than 40 hectares - is becoming unstable due to rising temperatures and is accelerating towards the valley. A research team from Heidelberg University is involved in the study of the rock glacier "Äußeres Hochebenkar" in the Ötztal Alps of Austria.

Heidelberg environmental physicists study dry regions and their influence on variations in the global carbon cycle End-of-dry-season CO2 pulses recur each year in the atmosphere above the Australian continent, a discovery made by an international research team led by environmental physicist André Butz of Heidelberg University.

Convection of salty water creates hexagonal patterns The honeycomb-like patterns that often occur in salt deserts, including Death Valley and Chile, look like something from another world. A team that included researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen, Germany, explain the origin of the mysterious patterns for the first time.

Team headed by Freiburg researcher has discovered earliest use of steel in Europe - on Iberian stone pillars from the Final Bronze Age A study by an international and interdisciplinary team headed by Freiburg archaeologist Dr. Ralph Araque Gonzalez from the Faculty of Humanities has proven that steel tools were already in use in Europe around 2900 years ago.

They are called giant hogweed, Japanese knotweed or ragweed - but they all have one thing in common: they are invasive plant species that found their way to Germany many years ago and are increasingly displacing other plant species. Many of them have not even reached their potentially suitable habitat yet.

New astronomical measurements in the infrared range have led to the identification of a heretofore unknown class of asteroids. An international research team including geoscientists from Heidelberg University has succeeded in characterising these small planets using infrared spectroscopy. They are located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and are - similar to the dwarf planet Ceres - rich in water.

Glaciers in high mountains can dam lakes, some of which burst out suddenly, posing a hazard to human settlements downstream. To better understand long-term changes of these floods, Dr. Georg Veh and researchers at the University of Potsdam and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) have studied whether and to what extent the activity of these glacial lakes has changed in recent decades.

Freie researchers contribute to new study in "Nature" detailing evidence of unusual drought conditions in Europe in recent years Using data taken from tree-ring isotopes, researchers have proven that the summer droughts that have swept parts of Europe in recent years were actually very unusual in comparison to droughts experienced during the past centuries.

For the first time, researchers have recorded live and in atomic detail what happens to the material in an asteroid impact. The team of Falko Langenhorst from the University of Jena and Hanns-Peter Liermann from DESY simulated an asteroid impact with the mineral quartz in the lab and pursued it in slow motion in a diamond anvil cell, while monitoring it with DESY's X-ray source PETRA III.

Palaeobotanists analyse plant fossils 252 million years old 252 million years ago, there occurred the greatest mass extinction in the history of the Earth up to that time: three-quarters of life on land and up to 95 percent of marine species vanished within just a few thousand years. This far-reaching event at the end of the Permian period marked the transition to a new age - that of the dinosaurs.

Geophysicist Michael Becken on the -Sensational Find- in Sweden and the Involvement of the University of Münster Some observers speak of a "sensational find", others warn against too great expectations. The fact is that a few days ago, experts in Kiruna in northern Sweden found the largest deposit of so-called rare earths in Europe to date.

Freiburg researchers describe a ridge network on the membrane of B lymphocytes for the first time Using new microscopic methods in combination with machine learning-based image analysis, researchers from Freiburg have discovered new structures on the surface of living B cells that affect the distribution and possibly the function of their antigen receptors.

Brown algae could remove up to 0.55 gigatons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year Brown algae take up large amounts of carbon dioxide from the air and release parts of the carbon contained therein back into the environment in mucous form. This mucus is hard to break down for other ocean inhabitants, thus the carbon is removed from the atmosphere for a long time, as researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen now show.

Composition of gases emitted by volcanoes can provide information on the possibility of imminent eruptions / Lightweight drones make investigation possible even in areas that are difficult to access The main gases released by volcanoes are water vapor, carbon dioxide, and sulfur dioxide. Analyzing these gases is one of the best ways of obtaining information on volcanic systems and the magmatic processes that are underway.

Research team analyses oxygen isotopes in 550 million-year-old samples Several billion years ago, the oceans were probably not as hot as often assumed, but were instead at much more moderate temperatures. This is the conclusion of a research team from the University of Göttingen and the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), Potsdam.

Heidelberg geographers use new methods to capture large dune shapes in time and space and to explain their origin Star dunes are among the largest dune formations on Earth and - due to their changing shape over time - they can be important indicators for understanding the effects of climate change. Scientists from Heidelberg University's Institute of Geography have examined such a dune in the Erg Chebbi sandy desert in Morocco by means of state-of-the-art laser scanning.

Sediment cores obtained from Eifel maar sites provide insight into the presence of large Ice Age mammals in Central Europe over the past 60,000 years / Overkill hypothesis not confirmed Herds of megafauna, such as mammoth and bison, have roamed the prehistoric plains in what is today's Central Europe for several tens of thousands of years.

Sediment cores from Eifel maars provide information on the development of ice-age large mammals in Central Europe during the past 60,000 years / Overkill hypothesis not confirmed For tens of thousands of years, herds of large mammals such as mammoth and bison roamed the landscape of what is now Central Europe.

Major ice streams can shut down, shifting rapid ice transport to other parts of the ice sheet, within a few thousand years. This was determined in reconstructions of two ice streams, based on ice-penetrating radar scans of the Greenland ice sheet, that a team of researchers led by the Alfred Wegener Institute, in which the University of Tübingen is also involved, has just presented in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Trade wind cumulus clouds are found on about 20 percent of the globe and cool the planet. Until now, it was expected that these clouds would become fewer due to global warming and thus exacerbate climate change. A team led by Dr. Raphaela Vogel of the University of Hamburg has now been able to disprove this.