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NASA’s Perseverance rover has uncovered unexpected igneous rocks at the edge of Mars’ Jezero Crater, providing new evidence that water interacted with the planet’s rocks at least three separate times in the region. The findings published in Communications Earth & Environment come from the rover’s exploration of an area known as the “Margin Unit,” which stretches along the shoreline of an ancient lake. Scientists had expected to encounter sedimentary rocks formed from material deposited by the lake. Instead, Perseverance found igneous rocks, which form when molten rock cools and solidifies either underground or after volcanic activity at the surface. The discovery is significant because the rocks preserve evidence of multiple episodes of interaction with water, offering scienti...

  Global coral reefs are facing growing pressure from rising ocean temperatures with a new assessment warning that increasingly frequent marine heat waves are leaving reefs less time to recover between bleaching events. The “Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2025”, released by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network on August 31, analysed 21.1 million observations from 87,299 surveys at 36,886 sites across 123 reef bearing countries, territories and economies between 1980 and 2024. The assessment found that average global hard coral cover declined from 30.2% during the 1980-2009 reference period to 27.3% between 2020 and 2024. That represents a 9.5% relative decline. By 2024, hard coral cover had fallen further to 25.8%. The report said the figures are likely conservati...

More than two dozen international wildlife conservation and animal welfare organisations have called on Vantara, the private zoological facility in Jamnagar, Gujarat, to permanently stop importing wild animals and introduce stronger safeguards around animal acquisitions. In an open letter dated September 22 and released by Germany based Pro Wildlife, 27 organisations including the Jane Goodall Institute Global and Animal Welfare Institute, urged Vantara to strengthen transparency, independent oversight and due diligence. The letter acknowledged Vantara recent decision to pause pending and new live animal import applications for up to a year following scrutiny related to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). However, the organisat...

  A flood emergency has been declared across Bangkok after 48 hours of heavy rain inundated roads overwhelmed drainage systems and caused widespread disruption in Thailand’s capital. All 50 districts of Bangkok have been designated emergency zones, with authorities urging residents to remain indoors where possible. People living near the city extensive network of canals have also been advised to move belongings to higher floors as water levels continue to rise. The eastern parts of Bangkok have been among the hardest hit. City governor Chadchart Sittipunt said authorities were working to pump water out of affected areas, but many canals were already full, increasing the risk of further flooding. Residents struggle as water enters homes Floodwater has left several roads ...

  New York, September 28, 2026: Nepal Prime Minister Balendra Shah has called for grant based international assistance to help the Himalayan nation recover from a devastating glacier related flood that killed at least 1,450 people and left more than 6,000 missing. Addressing the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Thursday Shah said Nepal's recovery and reconstruction requirements were estimated at about 10 per cent of the country's gross domestic product. He argued that countries vulnerable to climate-related disasters should not be required to take on additional debt to rebuild infrastructure destroyed by extreme events. “When a climate driven disaster destroys infrastructure of a poor country, the answer cannot simply be another mega loan or a patchwork of sm...

Moscow, September 28: Russia has completed the second RITM-200S reactor that will form part of a new floating nuclear power unit designed to supply electricity to a major copper mining project in the country’s Arctic Far East. Technicians at the ZiO-Podolsk plant near Moscow completed the reactor and successfully carried out high pressure water tests according to the report. A trial assembly was also conducted to verify that the components matched the project designs. The reactor will be installed aboard the floating power unit known as PEB-106 which will use two RITM-200S reactors. The first reactor was completed in May and is currently at a shipyard awaiting installation. The RITM-200 technology was originally developed for Russia’s modern nuclear powered icebreakers. The reacto...

  California, September 28: Engineers in California used hundreds of thousands of shredded waste tyres as lightweight construction material beneath a highway on-ramp turning a major waste management challenge into an infrastructure solution. The project was carried out in 2000 at the Interstate 880 and Dixon Landing Road interchange in Milpitas, where engineers faced around 30 feet of soft, unstable bay mud. The planned southbound connecting ramp required an embankment about 26 feet high 700 feet long and 50 feet wide. Using conventional soil or rock would have placed substantial weight on the weak foundation and could have resulted in long term settlement. Engineers therefore used tyre derived aggregate made by shredding discarded vehicle tyres as lightweight fill. About ...

  Buenos Aires: Plastic waste has been discovered in the remote depths of the Mar Del Plata Submarine Canyon off Argentina’s coast highlighting the reach of human activity into deep sea ecosystems. Researchers used a remotely operated vehicle equipped with high definition cameras to survey the V-shaped canyon, located about 250 kilometres off Argentina’s coast in the southwestern Atlantic. The research team initially set out to document marine biodiversity and habitats in the canyon. However during 17 dives researchers recorded 29 pieces of litter most of them plastic along with some rubber items. The first object spotted was a plastic bag tangled on the seafloor at a depth of more than 1,000 metres. The deepest item recorded was a piece of plastic tissue paper packaging a...

  New Delhi, September 28: Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Sunday laid the foundation stones for 53 development projects worth ₹214.12 crore across five Assembly constituencies under the Seva Sankalp Abhiyan. The projects are expected to benefit around 1.75 lakh residents. The works will be carried out in Kirari, Bawana, Mundka, Narela and Nangloi Jat, with a focus on improving roads, drainage, sewerage and other basic civic infrastructure in unauthorised colonies. According to the Chief Minister’s Office, the projects will cover 1,062 roads and lanes across 27 unauthorised colonies along with around 89.82 km of roads and 147.69 km of drainage networks. Kirari has the largest share of the programme, with 27 projects worth ₹105.51 crore across 14 unauthorised colonies. ...

New Delhi: In a first for India’s national highway sector, waste plastic has been mixed directly with bitumen in a pilot road section on NH-44 in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, in an effort to find a new use for plastic waste while reducing conventional bitumen consumption. The pilot stretch was laid on Thursday using Waste Plastic Modified Bitumen (W-PMB 76-10), a technology developed by IIT (BHU), Varanasi, under a research programme funded by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. Officials associated with the project said the technology could reduce conventional bitumen consumption by around 4%. The modified material is also estimated to cost about 20% less than conventional bitumen, although its performance and suitability for wider use will depend on the results of long term fiel...