All things geology, climate, oceans, and more
Satellite images have confirmed the presence of a persistent lava lake within the crater of Mount Michael—an active volcano located on a remote island in the Southern Ocean. Despite frequently appearing in films and video games, lava lakes are actually quite rare as far as geological features go. Of the approximately 1,500 potentially active terrestrial…
Earth had itself a day yesterday. Chile and Argentina got a prime look at a total solar eclipse while the Pacific Ocean played host to Hurricane Barbara, the strongest storm on Earth at the moment. It’s a double feature eclipsecane nobody on the ground would have any hope of capturing in a day, but satellites…
Monsoon season has already overwhelmed parts of India, including Mumbai. As of Tuesday, heavy rains have left some 35 people dead in the state of Maharashtra where the city of 18 million is located, according to the Times of India. Though torrential rains are always expected during the monsoon season, which begins in June and…
Guadalajara’s streets became rivers briefly over the weekend. A powerful storm dumped rain and hail over the central Mexico city, and when the slurry finally settled, parts of it were buried up to five feet deep in hail. The scenes on Sunday and Monday as the city’s work crews dug out looked like ones that…
France has never been hotter. The intense dome of high pressure sitting over Europe has shattered heat records across the continent. At least five countries set June heat records on Thursday and on Friday, France smashed its all-time temperature record at at least a dozen weather stations. Heat has built across Western Europe all week…
Scientists in Japan reported seeing two radioactive weather phenomena at the same time, for the first time, according to a new paper. The observation establishes a link between the two, adding to our knowledge of the wild physics that takes place inside thunderstorms. The researchers reported the “unequivocal simultaneous detection” of a minute-long “gamma-ray glow”…
While the BP oil disaster has received far more attention, elsewhere in the Gulf of Mexico, oil has been leaking into the water for far longer. The so-called Taylor oil spill began in 2004 but it went largely unnoticed until an investigation by the Associated Press in 2015. Now, federal agencies are finally learning just…
The Democratic National Committee refuses to hold a climate change-focused debate despite calls for one from activists and candidates. And now, it would seem the Everglades are also helping to make their case. Ahead of the first presidential debate in Miami on Wednesday, part of the Everglades about 30 miles northwest of downtown caught fire. Lightning…
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station caught the spectacular eruption of the Raikoke volcano off of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula over the weekend. It’s a pretty amazing view. Here’s the entire image: The image shows the classic shape of a volcanic plume rising, and then ash spreading at the top. It’s surrounded by a ring of…
Last year’s climate change-fueled European heat wave shrunk mountains and and revealed ancient history. So it’s with great trepidation that Europe is bracing for another scorching heat wave to descend this week. Monthly records could fall in many locations, with the most intense heat centered on France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, and Belgium according to national…
In a welcome bit of news as water shortages hit major cities worldwide, scientists have discovered an enormous low-salinity aquifer off the U.S. East Coast. The researchers say it could indicate other such aquifers trapped beneath the salty seas in ocean sediments across the planet. Hints of the aquifer’s existence go all the way back to…
The atmosphere has been heaving rain at the eastern U.S. like kids lob water balloons at a water fight. The never-ending barrage of rain has left the Midwest flooded, the Gulf of Mexico primed for a huge dead zone, and New Yorkers who walk everywhere stuck with perennially soggy shoes. And the rain won’t stop…
The internet was a purer place in 2016, and there’s no more perfect distillation of that truth than the spontaneous, crowdsourced effort to name a £200 million state-of-the-art research vessel Boaty McBoatface. The British government eventually decided to go with the more stately RRS Sir David Attenborough, but it offered the public an olive branch…
Scientists studying the vast, remote waters encircling Antarctica frequently enlist the help of elephant seals, sticking sensors on their heads that collect data on temperature and salinity. Now, these flippered field assistants, along with robotic floats that collect similar intel, have been conscripted to help solve an icy mystery. For the past few years, researchers…
Scientists announced on Thursday that they successfully installed five automated stations, including the highest weather station in world, on Mount Everest’s flank. At 27,658 feet (8,430 meters) above sea level, the station is set to record some of the harshest weather anywhere on Earth. And with a satellite connection, anyone can monitor the weather in…
The lakes of New Brunswick, Canada, carry a toxic legacy. Researchers have found traces of the pesticide DDT in sediments of five of its remote lakes, more than 50 years after the government stopped administered the chemical to fight outbreaks of the nasty spruce budworm. This is the same infamous chemical that inspired acclaimed environmentalist…
A mango festival is coming to the Philippines later this month. Mango lovers can thank El Niño, the climate phenomenon that causes temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific to rise. That results in a number of changes around the world—one of which is a surplus in mangoes in the Philippines, apparently. More than 4 million…
Some 1.2 billion years ago, an asteroid measuring over 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) wide smashed into northwest Scotland. Trouble is, scientists aren’t sure exactly where the meteorite struck, as traces of the crater are long gone. With new research, however, scientists are starting to hone in on the impact zone. A study led by Kenneth…
In April, the U.S. set a record for the wettest 12 month period in history. According to new government data, that record lasted all of a month. The National Centers for Environmental Information released its monthly climate report on Thursday. The state of the American climate: absolutely soaking. The soggy situation, which was driven in…
An updated estimate shows the September 2017 nuclear test by North Korea was equivalent to 250 kilotons of TNT—an explosive yield 16 times greater than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima during the Second World War. The explosion was also an order of magnitude stronger than the country’s previous five tests. New research published this week…
