Carolyn Gramling

Washington, D.C.

Earth and Climate Writer at Science News

Writer at Science News. I write about geology and climate and oceanography and paleontology and I like Tom Weller (pic).

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Articles

Could Spinosaurus swim? That would make it a game changer

1 week ago | snexplores.org | Carolyn Gramling

Scene: A patrol boat cruises through the water, just off a Caribbean island. Cue the pounding drums — a movie-trailer signal that danger approaches. Enter Spinosaurus. Three large, spiny sails slice through the deep blue sea and begin to circle the boat. The water roils. A worried passenger wonders what they are. Cut to another passenger who clings to the boat as it lurches. Suddenly, a spiny-sailed terror surges from the ocean, jaws snapping.
Losing a key U.S. climate report would hurt future disaster prep

1 week ago | sciencenews.org | Carolyn Gramling

This year may already be on track to be the second hottest on record, after 2024. Floods and tornadoes are wracking wide swathes of the United States. And more wild weather is expected to be on the horizon. But the federal government’s ability — and long-standing charge — to warn the nation about the future impacts of climate change is in jeopardy.
Wetland bacteria could make more methane in a warming world

3 weeks ago | sciencenews.org | Carolyn Gramling

Warming temperatures may cause methane emissions from wetlands to rise — by helping methane-producing bacteria thrive. Higher temperatures favor the activity of wetland soil microbes that produce the potent greenhouse gas, at the expense of other microbes that can consume it, researchers report April 23 in Science Advances.
Earth’s landmasses lost trillions of tons of water this century

3 weeks ago | sciencenews.org | Carolyn Gramling

Earth’s landmasses are holding onto a lot less water than they used to — and this loss is not just due to melting ice sheets. Terrestrial water storage, which includes water in underground aquifers, lakes, rivers and the tiny pore spaces within soil, declined by trillions of metric tons in the early 21st century, researchers report in the March 28 Science.
Could Spinosaurus swim? The fierce dinosaur ignites debate

1 month ago | sciencenews.org | Carolyn Gramling

Scene: A small patrol boat cruises through the water, just offshore of an island somewhere in the Caribbean. Cue the pounding drums, movie-trailer speak for danger approaching. Enter: Spinosaurus. Three large spiny sails slice through the cerulean sea and begin to circle the boat. The water roils. “What the hell are those!?” a passenger asks with trepidation. Cut to: Another passenger clinging precariously to the rigging as the boat lists.
Scotland’s Isle of Skye was once a dinosaur promenade

1 month ago | sciencenews.org | Carolyn Gramling

Scotland’s remote Isle of Skye was once a bustling dinosaur thoroughfare. A newly discovered set of at least 131 fossilized footprints dating to between 170 million and 166 million years ago reveals that both long-necked sauropods and carnivorous theropods splashed through the shallow waters of what was then a balmy, subtropical lagoon, imprinting their tracks onto the soft sands.
Solar geoengineering moves into the spotlight as climate concerns grow

1 month ago | sciencenews.org | Carolyn Gramling

Earth’s average temperature is continuing to tick inexorably upward as the world’s nations stall at reducing their atmosphere-warming emissions. In the face of that grim future, strategies to try to turn down the planet’s thermostat are gaining traction. One strategy in particular — solar geoengineering, which aims to cool the planet by reflecting solar radiation back into space — may be having a moment in the sun.
More details about the Myanmar earthquake are emerging

1 month ago | sciencenews.org | Carolyn Gramling

As rescue and recovery efforts continue to ramp-up in earthquake-ravaged Myanmar, new details about how the geologic setting amplified the disaster are beginning to emerge. The March 28 magnitude 7.7 earthquake that rocked through Southeast Asia collapsed buildings, dams and bridges, and killed at least 2,700 people. The rupture occurred along several hundred kilometers of a roughly 1,400-kilometer-long fault known as the Sagaing Fault.
Splitting seawater offers a path to sustainable cement production

1 month ago | sciencenews.org | Carolyn Gramling

A new cement-making process could shift production from being a carbon source to a carbon sink, creating a carbon-negative version of the building material, researchers report March 18 in Advanced Sustainable Systems. This process might also be adaptable to producing a variety of carbon-stashing products such as paint, plaster and concrete.
3 things to know about the deadly Myanmar earthquake

1 month ago | sciencenews.org | Carolyn Gramling

A powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake rocked central Myanmar on March 28 at about 12:50 p.m. local time, leaving at least 144 people confirmed dead so far and triggering widespread damage across both Myanmar and Thailand. Buildings collapsed, roads broke and at least one dam and a bridge crumbled. A magnitude 6.4 aftershock followed just 10 minutes later. With both countries declared disaster areas, international aid workers are scrambling to prepare supplies and assess the death toll and damages.