Earth

Oceans

Deep-sea mining may damage underwater ecosystems for decades

Microbe communities in the seabed off Peru still haven’t fully recovered from being disturbed by a deep-sea mining experiment 26 years ago.

Earth

Greenland and Antarctica are gaining ice inland, but still losing it overall

Inland ice accumulation is not enough to counteract the amount of ice melting off Antarctica and Greenland into the oceans, satellite data show.

Earth

Did heavy rain trigger Kilauea’s eruption? It’s complicated

A study suggests the Hawaiian volcano’s outpouring of lava was triggered by heavy rainfall in the months preceding. But some scientists are skeptical.

Paleontology

The first frog fossil from Antarctica has been found

An ancient amphibian from Antarctica gives new insight into when the continent got so cold.

Animals

Insects’ extreme farming methods offer us lessons to learn and oddities to avoid

Insects invented agriculture long before humans did. Can we learn anything from them?

Climate

A U.S. oil-producing region is leaking twice as much methane as once thought

Satellite measurements identify the Permian Basin, a massive U.S. oil- and gas-producing area, as a large source of leaked methane to the atmosphere.

Earth

Plate tectonics may have started 400 million years earlier than we thought

Magnetic minerals in ancient rocks suggest that plate tectonics may have been under way as early as 3.2 billion years ago.

Climate

Climate change made a southwestern U.S. drought one of the worst in 1,200 years

Tree ring records show that the 2000–2018 drought in southwestern North America is among the most severe to strike the region in over a millennium.

Earth

Forecasters predict a very active 2020 Atlantic hurricane season

Warmer ocean temperatures could fuel a very active Atlantic hurricane season, with one forecast predicting 18 named storms, including nine hurricanes.

Environment

50 years ago, American waterways were getting more protections

A 1970 bill that became the Clean Water Act helped to double the number of U.S. waterbodies clean enough for swimming and fishing. In January, the U.S. administration changed how waters were defined, effectively removing those protections for half the country’s wetlands.

Environment

A year long expedition spotlights night life in the Arctic winter

Scientists anchored to an ice floe near the North Pole are investigating how life survives polar night and what changes will occur as the Arctic continues to warm.

Climate

The largest Arctic ozone hole ever measured is hovering over the North Pole

A strong polar vortex in early 2020 led to what may be a record-breaking hole in the ozone layer over the Arctic.