Alaska Volcano Observatory scientists said that overnight emissions from Veniaminof generated an ash plume up to 15,000 feet. The cloud drifted more than 150 miles to the southeast. The ash emissions prompted an aviation warning. Observatory geophysicist Dave Schneider said that level of emissions would affect mostly smaller aircraft. Ash above 20,000 feet could threaten jet airplanes.
Earth's future is being written in fast-melting Greenland
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This is where Earth's refrigerator door is left open, where glaciers dwindle and seas begin to rise. New York University air and ocean scientist David Holland, who is tracking what's happening in Greenland from both above and below, calls it "the end of the planet." He is referring to geography more than the future. Yet in many ways this place is where the planet's warmer and watery future is being written.
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Walloped by heat wave, Greenland sees massive ice melt
The heat wave that smashed high temperature records in five European countries a week ago is now over Greenland, accelerating the melting of the island's ice sheet and causing massive ice loss in the Arctic.
NASA scientists fly over Greenland to track melting ice
The fields of rippling ice 500 feet below the NASA plane give way to the blue-green of water dotted with irregular chunks of bleached-white ice, some the size of battleships, some as tall as 15-story buildings. Like nearly every other glacier on Greenland, the massive Kangerlussuaq is melting. In fact, the giant frozen island has seen one of its biggest melts on record this year. NASA scientist Josh Willis is now closely studying the phenomenon in hopes of figuring out precisely how global warming is eating away at Greenland's ice.
Walloped by heat wave, Greenland sees massive ice melt
The heat wave that smashed high temperature records in five European countries a week ago is now over Greenland, accelerating the melting of the island's ice sheet and causing massive ice loss in the Arctic.
NASA scientists fly over Greenland to track melting ice
The fields of rippling ice 500 feet below the NASA plane give way to the blue-green of water dotted with irregular chunks of bleached-white ice, some the size of battleships, some as tall as 15-story buildings. Like nearly every other glacier on Greenland, the massive Kangerlussuaq is melting. In fact, the giant frozen island has seen one of its biggest melts on record this year. NASA scientist Josh Willis is now closely studying the phenomenon in hopes of figuring out precisely how global warming is eating away at Greenland's ice.
Rare conservation win: Mountain gorilla population ticks up
After facing near-extinction, mountain gorillas are slowly rebounding. On Wednesday, the Switzerland-based International Union for Conservation of Nature updated mountain gorillas' status from "critically endangered" to "endangered," a more promising, if still precarious, designation. There are now just over 1,000 of the animals in the wild, up from an estimated population of 680 a decade ago.
Explorers to send 1st live video broadcast from ocean depths
Explorers are set to deliver the first live video broadcast from deep below an ocean's surface. Early next week, a submersible is expected to dive to 300 meters (nearly 1,000 feet) off the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean and send images to a satellite transmitter on the mother ship. The Associated Press will send that footage around the world. The British-led Nekton Mission highlights the state of the oceans as fears grow over climate change. The Indian Ocean is the least explored in the world, and there is almost no data from the Seychelles below scuba depth. That's about to change.
Rare conservation win: Mountain gorilla population ticks up
After facing near-extinction, mountain gorillas are slowly rebounding. On Wednesday, the Switzerland-based International Union for Conservation of Nature updated mountain gorillas' status from "critically endangered" to "endangered," a more promising, if still precarious, designation. There are now just over 1,000 of the animals in the wild, up from an estimated population of 680 a decade ago.
To save monarch butterfly, scientists are moving forest 1,000 feet up a mountain
The world is losing monarch butterflies at a startling rate, as logging, herbicides and other human activities destroy natural habitats. But the biggest threat yet has only recently come into focus. Climate change, with its extreme storms, prolonged droughts and warming temperatures, is poised to eradicate the Central Mexico forest that serves as the butterfly's winter refuge. To save the butterflies, local farmer Francisco Ramirez Cruz and a group of scientists are trying to move the entire forest 1,000 feet up a mountain.