A more comprehensive way to understand the fracturing of Greenland's Helheim Glacier may now be possible thanks to a $489,000 grant from the Heising-Simons Foundation to a team of Penn State researchers to launch a feasibility study.

Analysis of fatty residue in pottery from the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia revealed evidence of fermented dairy products — soft cheeses and yogurts — from about 7,200 years ago, according to an international team of researchers.

Michael Mann, distinguished professor of atmospheric sciences and director of Penn State's Earth System Science Center, is the 2018 recipient of the American Geophysical Union's Climate Communication Prize.

There may be more habitable planets in the universe than we previously thought, according to Penn State geoscientists, who suggest that plate tectonics — long assumed to be a requirement for suitable conditions for life — are in fact not necessary.

Degradation rates of oil were slower in the dark and cold waters of the depths of the Gulf of Mexico than at surface conditions, according to an international team of geoscientists trying to understand where the oil went during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

How forests respond to elevated nitrogen levels from atmospheric pollution is not always the same. While a forest is filtering nitrogen as expected, a higher percentage than previously seen is leaving the system again as the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide, say researchers.