earth science
Out of the four rocky planets in our Solar System, only Earth presently has plate tectonics. But billions of years ago, Venus had them, too.
A combination of factors make the weather at New Hampshire's Mount Washington arguably the most brutal in the world.
This minimalist map unties Asia’s mountainous geography, centered on the “Pamir Knot.”
With such a vast Universe and raw ingredients that seem to be everywhere, could it really be possible that humanity is truly alone?
Seventy-five years after the anomaly's discovery, scientists have finally figured out why sea levels are so much lower here.
Chemical changes inside Mars' core caused it to lose its magnetic field. This, in turn, caused it to lose its oceans. But how?
McDermitt Caldera, the site of an ancient volcanic eruption, straddles the border of Oregon and Nevada.
The mountain can generate lenticular clouds, which may contribute to its supernatural reputation.
The asteroid is expected to come within 140,000 miles of Earth — well inside the moon’s orbit.
To this day, one cult believes that Lemuria was real, and that its people left us the sacred wisdom to revive their advanced civilization.
A clock, designed and built in Europe, ran hopelessly at the wrong rate when brought to America. The physics of gravity explains why.
Life in the supremely vast cosmos is incredibly rare. We need a new vision for our living planet and for ourselves.
Fossil Cycad National Monument held America’s richest deposit of petrified cycadeoid plants, until it didn’t.
If we're going to discuss oceanography and climate change, we should at least identify the currents correctly.
Rocks and minerals don’t simply reflect light. They play with it and interact with light as both a wave and a particle.
The divers spend their waking hours either under hundreds of feet of water on the ocean floor or squeezed into an area the size of a restaurant booth.
A Harvard astronomer went to the bottom of the ocean, claiming he recovered alien technology. But what does the science actually indicate?
But it's still challenging to build a 22,000-mile elevator.
The crisis of the Anthropocene challenges our traditional narratives and myths about humanity's place in the world. Citizen science can help.
There's an entire Universe out there. So, with all that space, all those planets, and all those chances at life, why do we all live here?
Despite the enormous mass of the Earth, simply depleting our groundwater is changing our axial tilt. Simple Newtonian physics explains why.
Origin of life studies have always focused on a set of strict environments that could give rise to life. Ante-life opens new possibilities.
There may be more energy in methane hydrates than in all the world’s oil, coal, and gas combined. It could be the perfect "bridge fuel" to a clean energy future.
"Superhabitable" planets might be real, but Earth is probably as good as it gets.
The cycles of life all rely on the dynamism of the Earth's crust.
About six million years ago, the Mediterranean was sealed off from the Atlantic, and over centuries it ran dry. One megaflood reversed that.
Stone buildings in northern India reveal secrets of old structures that could save lives.
Wind farms seem less productive when scientists incorporate more realistic atmospheric models into their output predictions.