The change in the ice mass covering Antarctica is a critical factor in global climate events. Scientists at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences have now found that the year by year mass variations in the western Antarctic are mainly attributable to fluctuations in precipitation, which are controlled significantly by the climate phenomenon El Niño. They examined the GFZ data of the Germ ... read more >>

Hurricane Rina is in the western Caribbean Sea slowly gaining strength. The storm is now a Cat 2 with winds around 100 mph, and may become a major hurricane with winds around 115 mph by tomorrow. ... read more >>

A NASA-led team has used radar sounding technology developed to explore the subsurface of Mars to create high-resolution maps of freshwater aquifers buried deep beneath an Earth desert, in the first use of airborne sounding radar for aquifer mapping.
The research may help scientists better locate and map Earth's desert aquifers, understand current and past hydrological conditions in Earth's des ... read more >>

A team of British researchers are preparing to dig down through three-kilometer-thick ice to sample a lake under the Antarctic in the hope of finding new species and clues about the future impact of climate change.
The team’s mission is to prepare the way for the “deep-field” research mission that will take place in October 2012. They will then use hot water to melt through 3,000 meters of ice i ... read more >>

The picture illustrates the mean annual groundwater recharge nicely. ... read more >>

SLOWLY and almost imperceptibly the seas are rising, swollen by melting ice and the expansion of seawater as it warms. But there's another source of water adding to the rise: humanity's habit of pumping water from underground aquifers to the surface. Most of this water ends up in the sea.

Not many scientists even consider the effects of groundwater on sea level, says Leonard Konikow of the Uni ... read more >>

Scientists have been using small variations in the Earth’s gravity to identify trouble spots around the globe where people are making unsustainable demands on groundwater, one of the planet’s main sources of fresh water.They found problems in places as disparate as North Africa, northern India, northeastern China and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley in California, heartland of that state’s $30 b ... read more >>

Water from the Sacramento River is pulled through the Delta to pumps that deliver water to California residents. Most of the water, though, is used to satisfy agricultural needs.

All of this exported water disrupts the natural water flow through the region. However, now with sea level rising and increased and improved seismic risk assessment - the aging infrastructure in the Delta might be put ... read more >>

The small town of Boise City, Okla., which I wrote about in Wednesday’s Times, survived the environmental disaster of the Dust Bowl in the 1930s. But now it faces a confluence of dangers that could push it to the edge of extinction. These include a record drought, a lack of economic development and a declining population. But another important factor that I did not have the space to discuss in th ... read more >>

Erin Swanson has finished posting her four-part series, Too Many Broken Wells. She focuses on wells in Haiti and the NGO, Haiti Outreach.
Access them all below:
Part 1: Too Many Broken Wells
Part 2: Why Do Wells Break?
Part 3: Sustainability and Ownership
Part 4: Successful Wells
And here's an extra: Digging is Easy ... read more >>