Tsunamis aren’t just bigger-than-average waves. Triggered by undersea earthquakes or volcanic eruptions like the one in Tonga, they are fast, massive and potentially destructive. Here’s why.
A stand of red mangroves in the calm, calcium-rich, fresh waters of the San Pedro Mártir River, Tabasco, Mexico.
Ben Meissner
Mangroves grow in saltwater along tropical coastlines, but scientists have found them along a river in Mexico’s Yucatan, more than 100 miles from the sea. Climate change explains their shift.
Scientists have been consistently documenting environmental changes at research sites like this one in the Cascade Mountains for decades.
US Forest Service
The Army Corps of Engineers is planning a sea wall 6 miles long and flood gates. The infrastructure might protect downtown from a hurricane storm surge, but most of the area will still be vulnerable.
In August 2019 in the port of Marseille. The docking of cruise ships intensifies air pollution.
Christophe Simon/AFP
Joël Guiot, Aix-Marseille Université (AMU) e Wolfgang Cramer, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS)
The Mediterranean region, with its biodiversity, climate, demographics, and economic activities such as tourism, agriculture and fisheries, is particularly vulnerable to environmental risks.
Eelgrasses covered with small snails, which keep the leaves clean by feeding on algae that live on them.
Jonathan Lefcheck
Healthy seagrasses form underwater meadows teeming with fish and shellfish. A successful large-scale restoration project in Virginia could become a model for reseeding damaged seagrass beds worldwide.
A new study estimates that mangroves prevent over $65 billion in damage from coastal storms every year, and says mangrove protection should be funded in the same way as infrastructure like seawalls.
A crowded Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
R.M. Nunes/Shutterstock
Research into public health benefits of integrating nature into cities has focused on green spaces. New studies suggest water features are just as useful and can piggyback on other infrastructure goals.
Low lying regions could be devastated by sea level rise this century.
Zita Sebesvari/UNU-EHS
The IPCC report says extreme sea level events that used to hit once a century will occur once a year in many places by 2050. This situation is inevitable, even if emissions are dramatically curbed.
Bleached staghorn coral on the Great Barrier Reef. Many species are dependent on corals for food and shelter.
Damian Thomson