Southern

A Forgotten Continent From 40 Million Years Ago May Have Just Been Rediscovered

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A low-lying continent that existed some 40 million years ago and was home to exotic fauna may have “paved the way” for Asian mammals to colonize southern Europe, new research suggests.   Wedged between Europe, Africa and Asia, this forgotten continent – which researchers have dubbed “Balkanatolia” – became a gateway between Asia and Europe … Read more

Newly Discovered Dinosaur From Argentina Belongs to a Rather ‘Armless’ Family

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Paleontologists in Argentina have identified a new species of dinosaur which likely had such feeble forearms, it would make Tyrannosaurus rex look like Popeye in comparison. The dinosaur, named Guemesia ochoai and identified from a single skull, is thought to belong to a clade of tiny-armed carnivores known as abelisaurids, which once tramped across Europe, Africa, South … Read more

World-Record ‘Megaflash’ of Lightning Stretched Across The US For Almost 500 Miles

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A jaw-dropping lightning megaflash that snaked across three states in the southern US just won a world record. A megaflash is not your standard cloud-to-ground lightning bolt. It’s an enormous electric zigzag that travels from one electrified cloud to the next, almost instantaneously.   A big enough thunderstorm system can allow a megaflash to cover hundreds of … Read more

Arctic ‘ring of fire’ solar eclipse of 2021 changed southern auroras. Here’s how.

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A solar eclipse on one side of Earth stimulated aurora displays on the opposite side of our planet, according to a new study. The “ring of fire” or annular solar eclipse of June 10, 2021, passed over sparsely-populated regions near and within the Arctic Circle in Canada, Greenland and Russia, and appeared as a partial … Read more

We May Finally Understand Why Clouds Are Different Between Earth’s Hemispheres

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You might think that clouds are clouds all over Earth, but that’s not quite so. If you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, the clouds there are different, more abundant, and more reflective than clouds found in the Northern Hemisphere, a fact scientists are well familiar with, but have not been able to fully explain.   Now, … Read more

Last 9 Years Are Now Among 10 Hottest Ever Recorded

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The nine years spanning 2013-2021 all rank among the 10 hottest on record, according to an annual report a US agency released Thursday, the latest data underscoring the global climate crisis.   For 2021, the average temperature across global surfaces was 1.51 degrees Fahrenheit (0.84 degrees Celsius) above the 20th-century average, making the year the … Read more

Even Drastic CO2 Cuts Won’t Bring Back The Climate We’ve Lost

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We’re so far down the road of climate change, that even making drastic cuts to atmospheric carbon dioxide levels won’t be enough for the world’s weather systems to fall back into their previous patterns, according to a new study.   But the research also suggests we still can have a huge impact on how severe … Read more

Archaeologists Find 2,000-Year-Old Lesson on Sea Level Changes Destroying Societies

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Archaeologists have linked rising and lowering sea levels in the Atlantic Ocean to the ebbs and flows of ancient civilizations in southern Brazil. The findings, which incorporate several lines of past archaeological evidence, suggest even large, resilient, and cooperative coastal communities can easily go out with the tide.   When analyzing and dating a series … Read more

Why the Southern U.S. Is Prone to December Tornadoes

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The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. On the night of Dec. 10-11, 2021, an outbreak of powerful tornadoes tore through parts of Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Illinois, killing dozens of people and leaving wreckage over hundreds of miles. Hazard climatologists Alisa Hass and Kelsey Ellis explain the conditions … Read more