Earth

Earth

El Niño’s coming! Is that so bad?

Although El Niño is often blamed for ill effects that total billions of dollars, a broader analysis suggests that the United States garners substantial benefits during this weather pattern.

Earth

Shuttle yields detailed, 3-D atlas

NASA scientists and Defense Department mapmakers are assembling billions of radar measurements made from the space shuttle Endeavour to produce what they say will be the world’s best topographic map.

Earth

Hard rock jellies: Throng of rare fossils found in Midwest quarry

A Wisconsin sandstone quarry recently served up a rare scientific find nearly a half billion years in the making: fossils of an armada of jellyfish that stud the site’s stone slabs.

Earth

Old pesticide still makes it to Arctic

Molecules of the pesticides known as chlordanes, which belong to a class of long-lasting organochlorine pollutants, circulate in Arctic air years after they were applied in temperate latitudes.

Earth

New way of gauging reservoir evaporation

Scientists have developed a new way to estimate the evaporation of water from large reservoirs that, if adopted, would replace a labor-intensive procedure based on decades-old technology.

Earth

Biotech-crop laws were big in 2001

Twenty-two state legislatures passed bills in 2001 addressing agricultural biotechnology, which concerns the development of genetically modified crops.

Earth

It’s a Rough World

Scientists are using fractals, mathematical forms that can describe objects with fractional dimensions, to model phenomena such as wildfire propagation and the spread of toxic fluids through rocks and soil.

Earth

Algae do battle with bioweaponry

Beneath the frozen surface of Sweden's lakes, algae wage wars over nutrients, and one combatant apparently prevails by releasing chemicals toxic to its adversaries.

Earth

Toxic Pfiesteria inhabit foreign waters

The notorious Pfiesteria microbes, implicated in fish kills and human illness along the mid-Atlantic U.S. coast, have turned up in Norway.

Earth

Earth’s inner core could include silicon

Laboratory experiments investigating the crystal structure of iron-silicon alloys at high temperatures and pressures may yield new insights into the mineral composition of Earth's core.

Earth

Finding fault for an old earthquake

Scientists in Southern California believe they've found evidence that finally identifies the source of one of the region's largest quakes, a magnitude 7-plus temblor that struck the area on Dec. 21, 1812.

Earth

Satellites could help track sea level

Experiments that used signals from Global Positioning System satellites to precisely measure altitude above a lake's surface may pave the way for fleets of spaceborne sensors that can quickly and inexpensively monitor local and global changes in sea level.