Earth

  1. Astronomy

    Super-Earths are not a good place for plate tectonics

    The intense pressures inside super-Earths make plate tectonics less likely, new research suggests.

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  2. Environment

    Oil-munching microbes cleaning up Gulf marshes faster than expected

    Microbes in some of Louisiana’s marshes are breaking down oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill faster than expected.

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  3. Earth

    Fast-spreading crack threatens giant Antarctic ice shelf

    A fast-spreading crack threatens Larsen C, one of Antarctica’s biggest ice shelves, satellite data suggest.

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  4. Agriculture

    Many of Earth’s groundwater basins run deficits

    Twenty-one of Earth’s 37 largest groundwater basins are rapidly depleting, satellite data show.

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  5. Earth

    Dinosaurs may not have seen the Grand Canyon after all

    New geologic comparisons peg the Grand Canyon’s inception well after dinosaurs went extinct.

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  6. Earth

    Most of Earth’s impact craters await discovery

    Hundreds of undiscovered impact craters probably dot Earth’s surface, new research estimates.

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  7. Planetary Science

    Water’s origin story, science and sci-fi and more reader feedback

    Readers discuss how Earth got its water, chat about a hot spot's violent past and more.

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  8. Earth

    Fluid injection triggers earthquakes indirectly, study finds

    An up-close look at artificially triggered quakes suggests that tremors start slow and smooth.

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  9. Earth

    Grand Canyon’s age revised, again

    The Grand Canyon is much younger than previous research had suggested, a new study says.

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  10. Climate

    Greenhouse effect from fossil fuels felt almost immediately

    The warming caused by burning fossil fuels is surpassed within months by the greenhouse gas effect of the released carbon dioxide, new research shows.

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  11. Physics

    Rogue waves don’t always appear unannounced

    Scientists may be able to forecast the arrival of anomalously large ocean swells, suggest scientists who analyzed the moments before rogue water waves and freak light flashes.

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  12. Climate

    Real estate is tight as marine species move to cooler waters

    Marine species migrating amid global warming face shrinking habitats in cooler locations.

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