Author: Mahfuza Sabiha

While global warming and its effect on climate change is steadily making its mark on the planet, another concern rises—wildfires, specifically in Southern California and the Greater Los Angeles area. As climate change becomes more drastic, periods of dryness and wetness become more varied and extreme (temperature and precipitation-wise) as they alternate. While very wet seasons are beneficial for crop growth, the consequential dry seasons are even more dangerous in leadings to fires that burn vegetation. As the strong winds, known as Diablo winds in the north and Santa Anas in the south, become drier, its humidity decreases as it descends into California. This lids to an extreme increase in the risk of wildfires starting and rapidly spreading. The influx in carbon dioxide emotions combines with greenhouse gases leads to warmer air, which causes soil and vegetation to become drier and easier to catch on fire. While California is historically used to wildfires in the summer seasons due to dry winds, the expectation of autumn rain in the fall usually snuffs out these fires. However, this period of precipitation has not arrived yet—causing California’s wildfire season to be dangerously extended. Climate change may cause, in the future, less rainfall in the fall, and more in December and January. This is also a dangerous result of global warming, as precipitation is needed to account for the water loss due to evaporation in warming weather. However, some meteorologists believe that the delay of autumn rainfall is due to the recent cooling of pacific ocean waters (known as La Niña), which may have contributed to a ridge of air existing over the Pacific Northwest.

As today’s Skirball Fire and many other wildfires extending over the coming winter depict the devastating impacts of climate change, the effects of global warming are starting to show on the planet. In California, the temperature has generally increased by 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit since 1895, and will only go up. Global warming has contributed to the drought beginning in 2012, and with wildfires increasing, it’ll have an immense impact on vegetation as well as residents of California. Another reason as to why these wildfires are becoming more severe is due to its impact on California’s growing urban environment. As the state becomes more dense in population, human activities create a heat-island effect—the increase in heat, which reduces summer cloud cover. Cloud cover is very important for vegetation and the need to retain moisture. The increased heat-island effect may be another contributing factor to the extreme wildfires ripping through Southern California. The effect of human activities is increasingly becoming evident, and without drastic measures to cut down on the average human lifestyle, the natural disasters across the planet will only get worse.

Fountain, Henry. “In a Warming California, a Future of More Fire.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 7 Dec. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/12/07/climate/california-fires-warming.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&_r=0.

A new study by NASA concentrates the general global concern on rising sea level and pinpoints it on a new revelation—the melting of specific glaciers affect the sea level of certain cities. It is a known fact that if a large glacier—like the ones in Antarctica and Greenland—were to melt, it would contribute to the Earth’s rising sea level. However, the new study has shown that various glaciers around the world can affect different coastal cities, even if they’re not geographically close to them. If the glaciers in Greenland were to collapse, it would affect New York’s sea level, and the melting of glaciers in Antarctica would do the same to Sydney. When a large ice mass melts, it loses its mass—causing the gravitational pull on the ocean to decrease and move the ice mass away from nearby coastal cities. Cities that are close to melting ice masses do not need to worry about glaciers collapsing, because the event decreases their local sea level. On the other hand, cities that are further away are threatened by a rise in sea level instead. NASA’s study released an online feature where the effect of a the collapse of a certain glacier can be measured on each coastal city around the world. Using the feature, it can be predicted that the melting of Greenland’s glaciers can raise NY’s local sea level by an average of 2 inches, and Rio de Janeiro by about 5 inches. The further a city is to a glacier’s collapse, the greater its sea level rise is likely to be.

This study helps scientists in completing risk assessments by concentrating the source of the rise in sea level in a particular part of the world. It turns a different direction from the process of sea level “fingerprinting,” which measured the global effect of a glacier’s collapse. As scientists are now able to measure how big of an impact a certain glacier has on a specific city, they are better able to take counter protective measures against the damage it might cause. These findings of a direct effect on glaciers and cities that are located far away from them is the opposite of public opinion, so it helps each coastal city be prepared for a rise in their local sea level. It also shows just how dramatic the effect of human productivity on the Earth can be.

This article discusses the unusual findings in a recent research analysis on an ancient supervolcano in California that erupted about 765,000 years ago. While most assume that the magma underneath a supervolcano would be an incredibly hot layer of molten lava, the findings in this analysis show that California’s supervolcano sat on top of a relatively cool layer of magma—cool enough to be solid. The only way such a cool layer of magma can cause a supervolcano to erupt that quickly—a decade, which is very fast considering the time it takes for similar events in geology to occur—is if magma below the surface were “injected” into that layer and caused it to heat up so quickly. The resulting process leading to the supereruption would be characterized by water in the crust heating up, which would lead to hot springs, geysers, other hydrothermal features.

This finding was the result of an analysis of crystals in the Bishop Tuff, an ash deposit which was created as a result of the supereruption in Long Valley. Under normal circumstances, argon would not exist in the crystals before the eruption of the supervolcano, as it cannot be retained by hot crystals. The analysis shows, however, that the crystals contained argon older than the supervolcano’s eruption—the crystals in the layer of magma were cool enough to retain argon. Scientists can conclude from this study that the ocean of magma was cool enough for its crystals to retain argon, and heated up so quickly that the argon could not escape.

This research study gives scientists some intel as to what signs to look for to be able to predict the future eruption of a supervolcano or any other smaller eruptions. The super eruption that occurred in Long Valley, California hundreds of thousands of years ago was intense enough to be able to destroy anything 50 kilometers within the area, include crops and other vegetation. If a similar eruption were to occur today, scientists would need to be able to forecast it—so that people who live in the area can take the appropriate measured to minimize the damage.

An increase in hot and dry winds is common during the fall season in the West Coast. However, this time around, the amount and intensity of fires spurred by this winds have increased dramatically—8.5 million acres of land have been devastated by wildfires, in contrast to the yearly average of 6 million. Scientists speculate that the rise in atmospheric temperature and climate change may have contributed to the increase in harsh winds this fall. In general, these winds (called Diablo winds) are a result of high-pressure air that accumulates in regions with high elevations, like the Great Basin of Nevada. This air travels to regions of low elevation by the west coast, where it picks up speed among low-pressure air. As air descends, it becomes hotter and drier, and areas with very low elevation like canyons serve as catalysts for these winds. Hot and dry winds moving at high speeds cause wildfires to start easily and intensely. Research suggests that climate change may cause the air in higher elevation areas to have a higher atmospheric pressure, as well as a longer season of strong winds. This combination will only result in more devastating fires.

While residents of California and other western states expect these wildfires to occur over season, they are never completely prepared for the damage that these fires cause. These blazes leave many people injured, dead, and homeless as they destroy property, businesses, and crops. Wildfires also travel very quickly, leaving residents with very little time to flee once they see a fire starting. The recent increase in wildfires also causes the quality of air to decrease sharply as people either evacuate or are hospitalized for smoke inhalation and other effects. As this season of dry/hot winds and resulting wildfires lengthens, there are more damages as well as a need for more resources to recover from these disastrous events.

Fackler, Martin. “After the Tsunami, Japan’s Sea Creatures Crossed an Ocean.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 28 Sept. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/09/28/science/tsunami-japan-debris-ocean.html.

While it is normal for species to migrate around the world, it is unusual for an enormous ecosystem of marine life to cross the Pacific Ocean—as it did on the coasts of North America as a result of a tsunami that shook Japan 6 years ago. The destruction of the tsunami caused a large amount of wreckage to be launched across the Pacific Ocean, from the coast of Japan to the coast of North America. The wreckage involved non biodegradable materials such as plastic and fiberglass, which enabled hundreds of sea creatures from Japan to thrive and even produce on a long journey across the ocean, and settle in North American coasts. The many invasive species may perish in the new environment, but they may also take hold in their new home and challenge the native species already located there.

This new process of “mega-rafting” occurred due to human behavior and the effect it had on the world. Climate change causes the rising sea levels, and the increasing production of non biodegradable materials that can float around the ocean for a long time are both processes created and facilitated by human activity. A tsunami or a hurricane can cause hundreds of species to be displaced, which will interfere with the already existing species in the North American coasts. Coastal communities depend on the existing species, and if invasive species from Japan settle, it can become an issue economically and environmentally. The key point here is that human behavior and their waste has affected the environment in such a way that unnatural events are—displacing marine life. Without any intervention, this event can recur as long as there is a natural disaster to launch it.