drought – Page 3

Droughtbusters

Written on October 3, 2011.

Anita Hamilton, Time Magazine Record droughts have parched the earth’s crust from Somalia to Texas this year. The effects on the world’s drinking-water supply have been enormous. The level of China’s Yangtze River, the third largest in the world, sank so low this spring that about 400,000 people along its shores were stuck without a local drinking-water source until the government opened the gates of its massive Three Gorges dam to help counteract the crisis. In East Africa,...

Documenting California’s water woes

Written on April 7, 2010.

UCI hydrologist Jay Famiglietti calls much-needed attention to California’s dwindling groundwater supply. It may have been a rainy winter, but there’s still cause for concern about California’s water supply. Just ask Jay Famiglietti, UC Irvine Earth system science professor and founding director of the new UC Center for Hydrologic Modeling, which aims to help the state tackle its drought-induced water crisis. Famiglietti recently made headlines when he and NASA scientists discovered...

Working the Amazon soil

Written on April 25, 2009.

Earth scientist Claudia Czimczik digs in Peru for new dirt on global warming. Claudia Czimczik is deep in the Amazon rainforest, digging soil from the bottom of a muddy pit. She rolls the dirt between her fingers to feel its texture. “If you can make it thinner than a pencil, it has a lot of clay. If it breaks apart right away, it’s sandier,” says Czimczik, recalling her 2001 trip to Peru, during which she collected soil for an international study. Published March 6 in the journal Science,...

Tag: drought

Droughtbusters

Documenting California’s water woes

Working the Amazon soil