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Increasing drought, less precipitation, increased demand for water in agriculture - climate change is taking its toll on our groundwater.

An international team of researchers, including scientists from Freie Universität Berlin, publish a new study Scientists from Freie Universität Berlin, University of Bristol, Northwest University Xi'an, and the Institute of Geochemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have published the results of a new determination of the crystallization age of 4566.6 ± 0.6 million years for a meteorite called Erg Chech 002 (EC 002).

Archaeological investigations offer up new findings on the history of Parthian settlements in Iraqi Kurdistan The mountain fortress of Rabana-Merquly in modern Iraqi Kurdistan was one of the major regional centres of the Parthian Empire, which extended over parts of Iran and Mesopotamia approximately 2,000 years ago.

Microorganisms in aquifers deep below the earth's surface produce similar amounts of biomass as those in some marine waters. This is the finding of researchers led by the Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), both Germany. Applying a unique, ultra-sensitive measurement method using radioactive carbon, they were able to demonstrate for the first time that these biotic communities in absolute darkness do not depend on sunlight.

Researchers at Mainz University determine that the lava from the recent volcanic eruption on La Palma was particularly low in viscosity 28 June 2022 The Cumbre Vieja eruption in 2021 was the most protracted and disruptive volcanic eruption in the recent history of the Canary Island of La Palma. More than 1,600 structures, including about 1,300 residential buildings, were destroyed or damaged.

Global warming and a progressively drier climate in many parts of the world are causing more dust storms. To predict how these storms are caused, researchers are looking into the past to understand where the dust came from, for how long, and over what distances it was transported. An international research team led by Dr. Aditi K. Dave and Professor Kathryn Fitzsimmons from the Department of Geosciences at the University of Tübingen, along with colleagues from Romania, Brazil, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, have now developed a new method of doing this.

A long-term warm water body that continues to warm has now been discovered by a team from the CLICCS Cluster of Excellence at the University of Hamburg. It is three million square kilometers in size, is due to the human-induced increase in greenhouse gases, and favors extreme heat waves in the Northeast Pacific.

Carbonatite rocks are economically important. The many hundreds of known carbonatite deposits on all continents are important repositories of rare-earth metals such as lanthanum, cerium and neodymium. These are used in many key technologies, including smartphones, plasma and LCD screens, as well as in radiology for medical diagnoses, in generators in wind turbines, and in electric motors.

Carbonatite rocks are economically important: The hundreds of known fossil carbonatite deposits on all continents are important storage sites for rare earth metals such as lanthanum, cerium, and neodymium. They are used in many key technologies, including smartphones, plasma and LCD screens, medical diagnostic radiology, wind turbine generators, and electric motors.

Unusually well-preserved reef corals from the Geological and Palaeontological Collection at Leip-zig University hold a great secret: they allow us to travel far into the past and reconstruct climatic conditions in our latitudes. Researchers from Leipzig University, the Universities of Bremen and Greifswald, and UniLaSalle in Beauvais have now succeeded in doing just this.

Microplastics accumulate in the Rhine meadows at Langel-Merkenich / topography and flooding determine local concentrations of particles in the soil Microplastics can be deposited in river floodplains and transported to deeper soil horizons. Local topography, flood frequency, and soil characteristics are responsible for the amount of plastic particles deposited and their possible transport into deeper soil.

Göttingen scientists identify and investigate algae which register sea water temperatures of the warmest months Organisms adjust their cell walls according to environmental conditions such as temperature. Some adaptations involve changes in lipids which may still be preserved long after the rest of the organisms has been degraded.

Earth's earliest crust, more than four billion years old, survived deep in the mantle / Traces of ancient Earth's crust still exist today in volcanic rocks at Earth's surface / Publication in PNAS Dr. Jonas Tusch and Carsten Münker, both scientists at the Institute of Geology and Mineralogy at the University of Cologne, along with their colleague Dr. Elis Hoffmann, Freie Universität Berlin, used chemical analyses of magmatic rocks to prove that the remains of the first crust of our planet lie buried at great depths in Earth's mantle.

Volcanic eruptions in Siberia caused massive climate change 252 million years ago. Approximately 75 percent of all land organisms and 90 percent of all ocean organisms perished. The paleontologist Dr. William Foster at the Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN) has now decoded the causes of this mass extinction in the oceans.

International study led by the University of Bonn records 1.5 million years of climate in the drill core Can iron-rich dust fertilize the ocean, stimulate algae growth there, and thereby capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere? An international research team led by the University of Bonn used deep-sea sediment cores from the Scotia Sea to investigate whether this hypothetical greenhouse gas sink had an effect during ice ages.

Ditches and small streams at the edge of agricultural land contribute significantly to reducing agricultural pollutants in the water cycle. They promote nitrate reduction by microorganisms and thus have an important influence on nitrogen fluxes towards larger rivers and lakes. A research team led by Tillmann Lüders of the University of Bayreuth has now demonstrated this for the first time.

In mid-March 2022, the large-scale international HALO-(AC) 3 research campaign will begin investigating transformations of air masses in the Arctic. Three German aircraft will be deployed, scientists from the UK and France will also be involved during joint flights with two further aircraft. The team of researchers will be focusing particularly on northwards-flowing warm air reaching into the central Arctic, which are often called warm air intrusions.

A small heap of very fine white quartz sand glistens in the palm of Prof. Ralf Hetzel's hand. The grains of sand allow him to look deep into the past. To be precise, the cosmogenic nuclide Beryllium-10 (10Be) does. Such nuclides are produced by cosmic radiation in solid rock.

Tree ring analyses reveal growth declines over recent decades / Researchers expect further, even drastic declines, especially in southern Europe 16 March 2022 Beech forests in Europe are severely threatened by climate change, particularly in southern European countries, but also in central Europe. Models project severe beech growth declines over the next 70 years - ranging from 20 percent to perhaps more than 50 percent depending on the climate change scenario and the region in question.

Research team including Göttingen University studies volcanic impact on ecosystems in Patagonia The soils and vegetation of Patagonia's fjord regions form a unique and highly sensitive ecosystem that is closely linked to marine ecosystems, sediment deposition and carbon storage in the ocean. A research team, including the University of Göttingen, has been working on reconstructing the climate history of this region in this extremely wet, rainy and inaccessible fjord and island zone of the Patagonian Andes in southern Chile.