Earth Science

Giant Icebergs Used to Ram Up Against Florida

21,000 years ago, icebergs carved up the ocean floor off the Miami coast

Satellite image of New Zealand

Here's One Very Good Reason to Drill Deep Into an Active Fault

Scienctists hope to install instruments at the fault to observe changes in the earth at depth

Why Is Antarctic Sea Ice at a 35-Year High?

Nobody really knows, but they have some thoughts

International Space Station astronauts captured this photograph of Earth's atmospheric layers. The troposphere is the orange-red layer. The gray, just above that, is the stratosphere. Then, the blue is the mesosphere.

10 Weird Things Humans Have Sent Into the Stratosphere

Tied to high-altitude balloons, bacon and LEGO figures have reached heights nearing 100,000 feet

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See How Humans Have Reshaped the Globe With This Interactive Atlas

Zoomable maps reveal the scope of humanity’s influence on Earth—and the innovations aiming to create a more sustainable future

A new gravity map shows the details of the sea floor

Satellite Observations Revealed Thousands of New Mountains Right Here on Earth

There are thousands of mountains dotting the sea floor

Fortunately the lava cooled before we got there.

The Man in the Moon Was Made By Radioactivity, Not Meteors

Differential cooling caused by radioactive material in the crust caused one of the Moon's most distinctive features

Ice Age humans left their footprints across what is now Willandra Lakes in southeastern Australia.

How Climate Change May Have Shaped Human Evolution

Evidence is building that past climate change may have forged some of the defining traits of humanity

Pack ice and fjord walls with sedimentary strata.

Have Humans Really Created a New Geologic Age?

We are living in the Anthropocene. But no one can agree when it started or how human activity will be preserved

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Travel Through Deep Time With This Interactive Earth

Explore key moments in Earth’s transformative history as continents drift and climate fluctuates over 4.6 billion years

A capture of the map showing how various countries' populations may be affected by sea level rise. For the full experience see the interactive infographic at the

As Many As 3 Million Americans Could Soon Be Threatened by Sea Level Rise

Across the world, 650 million people could be at risk

An artist's conception of MAVEN in orbit around Mars

Mars Just Got a New Robotic Explorer

NASA's MAVEN orbiter dropped into orbit last night

The Sahara, the world’s largest non-polar desert, may be at least 7 million years old.

The Sahara Is Millions of Years Older Than Thought

The great desert was born some 7 million years ago, as remnants of a vast sea called Tethys closed up

Curtains of light weave across the sky over Fairbanks, Alaska, on September 12.

Powerful Solar Flare Paints the Sky With Candy-Colored Auroras

Two back-to-back flares sent clouds of charged particles racing toward Earth, creating auroras that may last through the weekend

This Map Shows Where All That Carbon Dioxide Is Coming From

Global carbon emissions have an obvious bias

Rescue workers look through the ruins left by the August 3, 2014 earthquake.

Deadly Chinese Earthquake May Have Been Man-Made

More than 600 people died in the August 3 Yunnan earthquake

The World's Carbon Sinks May Be Running Out of Room

The Earth's biosphere may be absorbing less carbon than it used to

The Keeling Curve Gets a Much-Needed Boost from Google's Schmidt

The long-running carbon dioxide monitoring program got a $500,000 grant from the Schmidts

Lake Louise, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

The World Has a Whopping 117 Million Lakes—For Now

A new survey catalogs the world's (steadily disappearing) lakes

More Evidence That Arctic Warming Is Behind the Weak Polar Vortex

Scientists lay out how melting sea ice may destabilize the Arctic atmospheric circulation

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