Earth Science

Scientists Are Actually Talking About Building Giant Space Lasers to Control the Weather

This is what happens when you refuse to do things the easy way

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Someone, Somewhere Is Still Emitting A Whole Load of Ozone-Depleting Chemicals

Emissions of carbon tetrachrloride are still 30% of peak emissions

California’s exceptional drought has exposed the bottom of Big Bear Lake.

California’s Record Drought Is Making Earth's Surface Rise

Lifting land shows that the U.S. West is now missing some 62 trillion gallons of water

An image taken during field work in the Daan River gorge, Feb. 8, 2010. The large outcrop in the center of the photo disappeared in the space of an hour during a flood in 2012.

This Gorge Is Living Its Life on Fast-Forward

A quickly carved river gorge may disappear in just a few decades

The full moon is seen near Earth's horizon from the International Space Station.

Earth Is Making the Moon All Warm and Soft on the Inside

A new model boosts the notion that a layer of rock near the moon’s core is squishy and perhaps partially melted

An April earthquake in northern Chile left one highway with a deep crack.

Lingering Stress Hints at the Next Giant Earthquake in Chile

A section of the South American tectonic plate holds the potential for a massive quake in the near future

A fifth of Australia is desert.

Blame Climate Change for Australia’s 30-Year Long Dry Spell

Human-induced climate change is driving a drop in rainfall across southern Australia

The CAP canal is pictured running past houses and businesses it feeds in Scottsdale, Ariz. The Central Arizona Project is a 336-mile, man-made river of canals that delivers water from the Colorado River basin uphill to service water needs in southern Arizona, including Tucson and Phoenix.

Don’t Bank on Groundwater to Fight Off Western Drought—It's Drying Out, Too

Water losses in the west have been dominated by dwindling groundwater supplies

The Bahamian Andros Island, surrounded by the bright blue of Great Bahama Bank.

Saharan Dust Helped Build the Bahamas

Minerals blown off the Sahara fuel the microbes that undergird the Bahaman ecosystem

The small lakes that dot Russia's Yamal Peninsula were likely formed in the same was as the two strange holes.

That Weird Siberian Hole Has a Twin

Melting permafrost can change the land in really strange—and sometimes dangerous—ways

Without Oceans, Earth-Like Life Probably Can’t Evolve on Other Planets

It's not all about the planet's distance from its star, as researchers previously thought

Mount Fuji is beautiful when viewed from a distance. But it is also an active volcano that, if it erupts, could displace more than a million people in Japan.

What Makes A Volcano Dangerous? People

Millions of people worldwide live in the shadows of dangerous volcanoes

The North Pole Could Soon Drift Over to Siberia

Earth's magnetic field seems to be weakening and potentially migrating

In cities, where the urban heat island effect can raise the local temperature several degrees higher than nearby rural areas, summer is a time to cool off wherever you can.

Why the City Is (Usually) Hotter than the Countryside

The smoothness of the landscape and the local climate—not the materials of the concrete jungle—govern the urban heat island effect, a new study finds

Among the many downsides of natural gas extraction are the small earthquakes caused by injecting wastewater back into the earth. Above, an oil rig drills for natural gas through shale.

Time to Start Paying Attention to Fracking’s Earthquakes

With wastewater injection sparking swarms of small quakes, some states are taking notice of the danger

An oasis in the desert. Tucson, Arizona, as seen from space. October 28, 2011.

Arizona Could Be Out of Water in Six Years

Prolonged drought and a rapidly expanding population are pushing Arizona's water system to its limit

Yan'an, China is flattening some of the mountains surrounding the city, seen here in a photo from 2012

China Is Tearing Down Mountains to Build Cities

Land creation projects are proceeding apace without scientific research to back them up

Dr. John All fell 70 feet into this crevasse.

This Scientist Fell Down a 70-Foot Crevasse in the Himalayas But Managed to Claw His Way Out

Rescue teams finally reached him the following day

Refresh Your El Niño Expertise: the Pacific Ocean Is Gearing Up for a Powerful One

A strong El Niño this year could mean we're in for a real scorcher.

A view looking down Pine Street in the wake of the 1906 Earthquake.

What's Worse Than One, Big Earthquake? A String of Slightly Smaller Ones

Historical earthquake activity shows that California may not just be set for one big earthquake, but a cluster of smaller shakers

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