<![CDATA[Big Mama Earth Learning Academy - News]]>Thu, 16 Oct 2025 23:16:49 -0700EditMySite<![CDATA[New study examines the causes and consequences of the 2015 Wimberley floods]]>Wed, 31 Jan 2018 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.bigmamaearth.com/news/new-study-examines-the-causes-and-consequences-of-the-2015-wimberley-floods
Lakes Environmental Research Inc., Receives Landmark Patent

On Memorial Day weekend in 2015, the Blanco River rose to a record 40 feet. The swift rise of the water is known as a flash flood, a term familiar to Texans. The Texas Hill Country, where Wimberly is located, is known as “Flash Flood Alley” because it leads North America as the most flash-flood prone region.​
The rugged landscape tends to contribute to this moniker, in addition to urbanization. As natural areas become more and more developed, floods become more likely to occur because accumulating rainwater slides off concrete structures with nowhere to go, whereas plants and soil absorb that moisture. Furl and Sharif also say that flash floods are common in Texas due to its two heavy rain seasons in spring and fall that cause the soil to become oversaturated with rainwater.
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Continue reading at University of Texas San Antonio
Image via University of Texas San Antonio
]]><![CDATA[NOAA research holds promise of predicting snowpack before snow falls]]>Wed, 31 Jan 2018 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.bigmamaearth.com/news/noaa-research-holds-promise-of-predicting-snowpack-before-snow-falls
Lakes Environmental Research Inc., Receives Landmark Patent
​As farmers in the American West decide what, when and where to plant, and urban water managers plan for water needs in the next year, they want to know how much water their community will get from melting snow in the mountains.
This melting snow comes from snowpack, the high elevation reservoir of snow which melts in the spring and summer. Agriculture depends on snowpack for a majority of its water. Meltwater also contributes to municipal water supply; feeds rivers and streams, boosting fisheries and tourism; and conditions the landscape, helping lessen the effects of drought and wildfires.

Now, new NOAA research is showing we can predict snow levels in the mountains of the West in March some eight months in advance. This prediction can be down to the scale of a mountain range, which will improve regional water forecasts.

“In summer when people are thinking about 4th of July fireworks and barbeques, long before the first snow has fallen, our experimental prediction system tells us what the following March will be like,” said Sarah Kapnick, a physical scientist at NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory who led the research that appeared online on January 22, 2018 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “Advances in global climate models and high quality ocean, atmospheric and land observations are helping us push the frontiers of snowpack prediction.”

Continue reading at NOAA.
Image via California Dept. of Water Resources.
]]><![CDATA[Plastic in the Oceans Increasing Risk of Disease in Coral Reefs]]>Wed, 31 Jan 2018 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.bigmamaearth.com/news/plastic-in-the-oceans-increasing-risk-of-disease-in-coral-reefs
Lakes Environmental Research Inc., Receives Landmark Patent
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More than 11 billion pieces of plastic are lodged within coral reefs in the Asia-Pacific region. According to a new study published in the journal Science, as this plastic gets tangled, it often cuts the coral, increasing the risk of infection and disease outbreaks by as much 89 percent.
The study, which looked at 124,000 reef-building corals from 159 reefs, estimates that the number of plastic pieces caught in Asia-Pacific coral could increase by 40 percent by 2025, further increasing the risk of disease. More than 275 million people rely on coral reefs for food, coastal protection, tourism income, and cultural value.

Read more at Yale Environment 360

Image: An aerial view of plastic floating over coral in Myanmar. COURTESY OF KATHRYN BERRY
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