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earth science

Latest Articles

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
Comment
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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.

planetary science

Iceland’s Eruptions Reveal the Hot History of Mars

By Robin George Andrews
April 6, 2021
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The new volcanic fissures are more otherworldly than they first appear.

A mosaic of five microscope images of igneous rocks. The rocks are dappled with blue, pink, orange and multicolor inclusions.
geology

Scientists Pin Down When Earth’s Crust Cracked, Then Came to Life

By Howard Lee
March 25, 2021
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New data indicating that Earth’s surface broke up about 3.2 billion years ago helps clarify how plate tectonics drove the evolution of complex life.

Earth from space.
Abstractions blog

Global Wave Discovery Ends 220-Year Search

By Charlie Wood
August 13, 2020
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An 18th-century physicist first predicted the existence of a chorus of atmospheric waves that swoop around Earth. Scientists have finally found them.

An ice sheet stretching into the distance.
Abstractions blog

How Earth’s Climate Changes Naturally (and Why Things Are Different Now)

By Howard Lee
July 21, 2020
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Earth’s climate has fluctuated through deep time, pushed by these 10 different causes. Here’s how each compares with modern climate change.

John Priscu holds an ice core sample in a sterile laboratory.
Q&A

He Found ‘Islands of Fertility’ Beneath Antarctica’s Ice

By Steve Nadis
July 20, 2020
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John Priscu’s search for life that thrives under ice took him to subglacial lakes at the South Pole. Now he has his eye on Mars and Europa.


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