Earth
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Agriculture
Many of Earth’s groundwater basins run deficits
Twenty-one of Earth’s 37 largest groundwater basins are rapidly depleting, satellite data show.
- 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.
- Earth
Most of Earth’s impact craters await discovery
Hundreds of undiscovered impact craters probably dot Earth’s surface, new research estimates.
- 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.
- Earth
Fluid injection triggers earthquakes indirectly, study finds
An up-close look at artificially triggered quakes suggests that tremors start slow and smooth.
- Earth
Grand Canyon’s age revised, again
The Grand Canyon is much younger than previous research had suggested, a new study says.
- 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.
- 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.
- Climate
Real estate is tight as marine species move to cooler waters
Marine species migrating amid global warming face shrinking habitats in cooler locations.
