Natural Disasters

Dinosaurs came in all shapes and sizes, but only the small, feathered variety survived.

Ancient Birds Avoided Mass Extinction By Shrinking

The shrinkage process was well underway before an asteroid brought doom to the dinosaurs 66 million years ago

An Avalanche on Mount Everest Made This the Deadliest Day in the Mountain’s History

With at least 12 dead, today is worse than the day in 1996 when eight people were killed in a storm

Marijuana Grow Ops Are Drying Out California's Water Supply

Illegal marijuana grow ops use thousands of gallons of water a day

Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat, by Simon de Myle

Ten Ancient Stories and the Geological Events That May Have Inspired Them

If you dig deep enough, say scientists, you can find some truth to legends and creation stories

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Watch How Tuesday's Tsunami Waves Moved From Chile All the Way to Australia

A computer model shows how the tsunami crossed the Pacific

Snow in the Sierra Nevadas, January 18, 2014.

California’s Snowpack is 68 Percent Below Normal, Threatening Another Dry Summer

California's snowpack is running low, a bad sign for a state plagued by drought

The projected tsunami propagation for last night's Chile earthquake.

It Is Now Technically Possible to Stop an Earthquake

Scientists have devised a way to reflect seismic waves

Concert Hall in L'Aquila, Italy

Take a Tour of Pritzker Winner Shigeru Ban's Paper Tube Structures

Japanese architect Shigeru Ban has been awarded the Pritzker prize, one of architecture’s top prizes

Explore Every Tornado Across the United States Since 1980 Through This Interactive Map

See why they call it Tornado Alley, but don't be fooled into thinking a tornado can't happen in your own backyard

A Haitian woman collects peanuts in 2012.

California's Not the Only Place With a Drought, and Haitians are Faring Much, Much Worse

A string of disasters has made it hard for Haitians to weather the ongoing drought

Aerial view of the damaged site at Dawlish taken from the Network Rail helicopter

Flooding in the UK Causing Travel Nightmares

Last week, the seawall holding up part of a key railway line went down

20 Years Ago Today, the Northridge Earthquake Rocked L.A.

Sixty people died and thousands were left homeless in one of the most deadly earthquakes in American history

Nuclear tests, such as Operation Redwing in 1956, deposited radioactive plutonium and cesium in the atmosphere.

Plutonium From Nuclear Tests Lingers in the Atmosphere

Don’t worry, scientists say that it’s not a threat to human health but instead could be a marker of how air circulates

A magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck Costa Rica on September 5, 2012, producing a strong shaking through much of the country.

Scientists Successfully Forecasted the Size and Location of an Earthquake

Well before Costa Rica shook in a magnitude 7.6 quake in September 2012, geoscientists forecasted that the region was due for a magnitude 7.7 to 7.8 quake

This Past November Was the Hottest November Ever Recorded

In the 134-year observational record, we've never had a hotter November

Scientists had to use a remotely operated vehicle to retrieve temperature sensors from a borehole drilled into the Japan Trench, 6,900 meters below the surface of the Pacific Ocean.

Fault That Caused Japan's 2011 Earthquake Is Thin and Slippery

A group of scientists drilled miles beneath the Pacific Ocean, uncovering conditions that made the Tohoku-Oki earthquake and tsunami so devastating

Large swaths of Brazil’s Amazon have been wiped out, but deforestation there is starting to slow.

Hotspots of Deforestation Revealed in New Maps

New maps of global forest loss find that while Brazil is decreasing its rate of deforestation, many other nations are rapidly losing forest cover

The accelerometer chip in iPhones can accurately detect seismic movement, and perhaps even provide a few crucial seconds of warning before the most energetic waves from an earthquake arrive.

Your Smartphone Could Someday Warn You That Earthquake Waves Are About to Hit

The accelerometer chip in iPhones can detect seismic movement and may even provide a few seconds of warning before the most violent shaking strikes

Risk analysis groups have detected an increased frequency of Atlantic hurricanes due to climate change, forcing insurance companies to rethink their models.

How the Insurance Industry Is Dealing With Climate Change

The rising chance of extreme weather is forcing insurance companies to adjust their models as they take on more risk

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We Can Handle a Hurricane or Tornado, But What About a Mega-Disaster?

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