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earth science

Latest Articles

Colorful opalized shell of a fossil ammonite.
geology

Life Helps Make Almost Half of Earth’s Minerals

By Joanna Thompson
July 1, 2022
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A new origins-based system for classifying minerals reveals the huge geochemical imprint that life has left on Earth. It could help us identify other worlds with life too.

A satellite photo of the complex of rivers in the Amazon.
biodiversity

Reshuffled Rivers Bolster the Amazon’s Hyper-Biodiversity

By Yasemin Saplakoglu
June 7, 2022
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The lush biodiversity of the Amazon may be due in part to the dynamics of branching rivers, which serve as invisible fences that continuously barricade and merge bird populations.

climate science

Solving the Faint-Sun Paradox

By Jonathan O'Callaghan
January 27, 2022
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We might have a past faint sun to owe for life’s existence. This has consequences for the possibility of life outside Earth.

2021 in Review

The Year in Biology

By John Rennie
December 21, 2021
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The detailed understanding of brains and multicellular bodies reached new heights this year, while the genomes of the COVID-19 virus and various organisms yielded more surprises.

atmospheric science

Detailed Footage Finally Reveals What Triggers Lightning

By Thomas Lewton
December 20, 2021
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Scientists have never been able to adequately explain where lightning comes from. Now the first detailed observations of its emergence inside a cloud have exposed how electric fields grow strong enough to let bolts fly.

A 3D model showing red plumes in the mantle.
geophysics

A Massive Subterranean ‘Tree’ Is Moving Magma to Earth’s Surface

By Robin George Andrews
September 15, 2021
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Deep in the mantle, a branching plume of intensely hot material appears to be the engine powering vast volcanic activity.

A cutaway of thick brown soil with grasses on top.
climate science

A Soil-Science Revolution Upends Plans to Fight Climate Change

By Gabriel Popkin
July 27, 2021
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A centuries-old concept in soil science has recently been thrown out. Yet it remains a key ingredient in everything from climate models to advanced carbon-capture projects.

Lava bubbling out of the top of a volcano.
geophysics

A Burp or a Blast? Seismic Signals Reveal the Volcanic Eruption to Come

By Robin George Andrews
June 1, 2021
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Scientists have begun to decipher the subtle signs that reveal how explosive a volcanic eruption is going to be.

Q&A

The New Historian of the Smash That Made the Himalayas

By Robin George Andrews
April 14, 2021
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About 60 million years ago, India plowed into Eurasia and pushed up the Himalayas. But when Lucía Pérez-Díaz reconstructed the event in detail, she found that its central mystery depended on a broken geological clock.


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