Journal Series

What is a Volcano? A volcano is a crack in the crust of a planet, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber beneath the surface. Volcanoes are most commonly found where tectonic plates are diverging or converging on Earth, and the majority are found underwater. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge, for example, has volcanoes caused by divergent tectonic plates, whereas the Pacific Ring of Fire has volcanoes caused by convergent tectonic plates. Volcanoes can also form where the crust's plates are stretching and thinning, as in the East African Rift and the Wells Gray-Clearwater. Upwelling diapirs from the core-mantle boundary, 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) deep in the Earth, are thought to cause volcanism away from plate boundaries. This results in hotspot volcanism, such as the Hawaiian hotspot. Volcanoes are rarely formed when two tectonic plates slide past each other. As ash and droplets of sulfuric acid obscure the Sun and cool the Earth...

The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) concluded today with a ground-breaking agreement to provide "loss and damage" funding to vulnerable countries hit hard by climate disasters.  "This outcome moves us forward," said UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell. "We have found a way forward in a decades-long conversation about funding for loss and damage - deliberating about how we address the impacts on communities whose lives and livelihoods have been ruined by the most severe effects of climate change." In the face of a difficult geopolitical backdrop, countries delivered a package of decisions that reaffirmed their commitment to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The package also strengthened countries' efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the unavoidable effects of climate change, as well as increasing financial, technological, and capacity-building assistance ...

COP27 Day 1: Turning Ambition into Action Cop 27 has begun and the various topics covered in the first few days were the highlight of the greatest problems causing climate change and paving the way for future ambition to effectively tackle these global challenges of climate change. Discussions at COP27 get underway near the conclusion of a year that saw disastrous floods, unheard-of heat waves, terrible droughts, and powerful storms—all clear signs that a climate emergency is developing. As a result of serious geopolitical tensions and conflicts, millions of people around the world are currently dealing with the effects of concomitant energy, food, water, and cost of living crises. In this unfavorable environment, some nations have started to stall or reverse their climate policy and increased their reliance on fossil fuels. In order to achieve the main aim of the Paris Agreement, which is to limit temperature rise to 1.50C by the end of this century, CO2 emissions must be reduced by 4...