physical geography
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Massive Rift Detected in Arctic’s ‘Last Refuge of Ice’
During spring 2020, a temporary gap the size of Rhode Island appeared in the sea ice to the north of Canada’s northernmost island. Troublingly, this rift is located in the so-called “Last Ice Area” — a frozen expanse that’s expected to host the last remnants of Arctic sea ice as our world gets continually warmer.
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A ‘Lost’ 125,000-Year-Old Mangrove Forest Is Thriving in Mexico
Over 160 km from the Gulf of Mexico, an ecosystem of salt-tolerant trees is flourishing along a freshwater river. A team of researchers recently investigated how this verdant oasis got so side-tracked from its typical habitat, and they found that the forest was stranded inland during the last interglacial period more than 100,000 years ago.
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So Much Ice Has Melted, That the Earth’s Crust Is Shifting in Weird, New Ways
Both the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets — the world’s two largest bodies of ice — are melting at an alarming rate, causing major problems for local ecosystems and coastal communities alike. Now, in yet more evidence that the climate crisis is changing everything in bizarre and profound ways, new research suggests that the meltdown…
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Summer 2021 Breaks Heat Record Set During the 1936 Dust Bowl
The record for hottest summer in the U.S. has stood since 1936, the worst of the Dust Bowl. But 2021 has eclipsed that 85-year-old mark amid a season of drought, flames, and suffering.