Climate Trends in the West Today and 11,000 Years Ago

People often say things like Phoenix has always been dry; Seattle has always been wet; and San Francisco has always been foggy. But “always” is a strong word. A study from the UC Davis Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences synthesizes climate trends across the Western U.S. during a relatively young and lesser-studied period of Earth’s history — the Holocene Era, which stretches from the present day to the past 11,000 years.

Martian Meteorite Upsets Planet Formation Theory

A new study of an old meteorite contradicts current thinking about how rocky planets like the Earth and Mars acquire volatile elements such as hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and noble gases as they form.

Doctoral Fellow Solving Botswana Water Scarcity Crisis

Goabaone Jaqueline Ramatlapeng can vividly remember when she would go without water from domestic pipes for days. Growing up in Kopong, a rural village in Botswana, Ramatlapeng and her family faced a plight that those in surrounding villages knew as well: water scarcity. And when the water did flow, it was salty. Ramatlapeng’s research could help inform the development of sustainable water management policies in the region.

On Icy Enceladus, Expansion Cracks Let Inner Ocean Boil Out

In 2006, the Cassini spacecraft recorded geyser curtains shooting forth from “tiger stripe” fissures near the south pole of Saturn’s moon Enceladus — sometimes as much as 200 kilograms of water per second. A new study suggests how expanding ice during millennia-long cooling cycles could sometimes crack the moon’s icy shell and let its inner ocean out, providing a possible explanation for the geysers.

Ridgecrest Shows How Earthquakes Damage Earth’s Crust

In July 2019, a series of earthquakes — including two major shocks of magnitude 6.4 and 7.1 — struck near Ridgecrest, California, between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. For local residents, it was a violent interruption to the Fourth of July holiday. For seismologists, it was a rare opportunity to study how earthquakes damage the Earth’s crust.