All things geology, climate, oceans, and more
After two mercifully quiet months, the Atlantic hurricane season has suddenly roared to life. There are currently two storms spinning in the Atlantic basin with a potential third on the horizon. While it’s not like 2017’s record-setting run of storms, the sudden spate of unwelcome activity is the result of similar climate conditions. And those…
Since it snapped off the Larsen C ice shelf in July 2017, the trillion-ton iceberg known as A68 has spent most of its time stuck in the mud. Now, new satellite data reveals that the ‘berg made its biggest move yet over the austral winter—a dramatic counterclockwise rotation that shows no signs of stopping. About…
All over the world, from Florida to Thailand, efforts are underway to restore mangrove forests. These ecosystem have been in serious decline for the last 10 years, and sea level rise is set to threaten them further. In Hawaii, however, heavy efforts are underway to eradicate the trees. In fact, the islands might be the…
The Atlantic hurricane season may be slipping by to little fanfare (so far), but it’s a different story in the northwest Pacific. A dangerous super typhoon currently packing 170 mph winds could make landfall in Japan early next week. Typhoon Jebi, which started getting organized east of Guam on August 27, exploded to life over…
If the summer of 2018 has proven one thing, it’s that fighting large wildfires is serious business. But how exactly do we do it? Contrary to what some politicians might think, it takes a lot more than rivers of water. There are currently more than 20,700 people combatting active fires in the U.S. according to…
A year has passed since Hurricane Harvey bore down in the Southeast, pummeling Texas and Louisiana with 27 trillion gallons of water. Since then, some cities and communities have come a long way to ensure they’re better protected for next storm. Over the weekend, voters in Harris County, Texas—home to Houston, which saw some of…
A new study analyzing rock formations from 107,000 to 91,000 years ago has revealed something troubling: a strangely quick reversal of the Earth’s magnetic field in fairly recent history. The team of researchers from China, Taiwan, and Australia analyzed a stalagmite, a rock that slowly grows up from the floors of caves, in order to…
Canada and the U.S. share a lot of things, chief among them a border. To commemorate said border, there’s a peace park that ceremonially joins Glacier National Park in the U.S. and Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada. But our peaceful relations have been riled up by the hellacious wildfire season. On Thursday, the Boundary…
A new satellite image of our planet shows fires raging across the world, from Canada to Australia to South America to Sub-Saharan Africa. But despite its striking appearance, much of this is actually quite ordinary. The map, created by NASA, denotes fires with red dots, based on heat measurements that detect fires. While it may…
If there is a lesson of 2018, it is that we live in hell. This is canon. But leave it to NASA to make hell look pretty spectacular and maybe even a place I want to live. We’ve seen record wildfires, powerful hurricanes, and massive dust plumes rip across our fair planet this summer. And…
There’s a high definition camera on the International Space Station that frequently captures some of the most astounding sites on Earth. The latest entry into the oeuvre is Hurricane Lane. The space station passed over Lane multiple times on Wednesday when the storm was in peak form as a Category 5 hurricane with winds of…
Hurricane Lane continues to bear down on Hawaii, posing a catastrophic threat to residents and tourists alike. The storm could bring hurricane force winds to the Aloha State for the first time in 26 years, along with pounding surf and torrential rain. Hawaii has only seen three hurricanes reach its shores in the historical record.…
Tuesday’s announcement that the Trump administration would replace an Obama era rule regulating coal-fired power plants with a weaker one garnered a ton of coverage. Rightfully so, given that an analysis by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) showed the rule could kill up to 1,400 more Americans annually—an estimate that drew on public health studies…
New research into a strange atmospheric effect known as STEVE has failed to associate its enigmatic lights with aurora, pointing to the presence of an entirely new type of atmospheric phenomenon. Scientists started to look into these strange lights just a few years ago after people began to post images to a Facebook group called…
In a year of supremely weird weather, we may be in for yet another very odd event: a landfalling Hawaiian hurricane. Hurricane Lane is currently the strongest storm on the planet with winds of 150 mph, making it a very potent Category 4 storm according to the latest National Hurricane Center advisory. Hurricane Hunter aircraft…
After a period of quiet, the tropics have again come alive. Multiple tropical cyclones are roaring across the Pacific, but the most freaky looking is easily Typhoon Soulik, currently a weak Category 4-equivalent storm that’s on a path toward South Korea. I mean, just look at that thing. The eye on Soulik is an estimated 57 miles…
Massive, ravaging wildfires are now the norm on the West Coast, with the state of California now regularly breaking fire records, Canada’s British Columbia experiencing the third-worst fire season in recorded history, and all the smoke from those fires spreading across much of the continent and even further. But don’t worry, an area man has…
I wear my contact lenses most days—especially during the summer when I hope to don some fly-ass sunglasses. At the end of every month, my two flexible lenses’ lives are over. Into the bathroom garbage bin they go. Turns out that one in five users of contacts may be flushing them down the drain or…
Jessica Wentz escaped the concrete confines of New York for her childhood home of Santa Rosa, California last year. At the time, the decision seemed like a no brainer, leaving behind a landscape dominated by humans for one where homes mingled with the forest and rolling chaparral hills of Northern California. But the dream of…
Just when you think this wildfire season can’t get worse, something new comes along to remind you this year is truly one of rare horrors. Residents of Prince George, British Columbia—a small city 325 miles north of Vancouver—awoke to a sky seemingly devoid of sunlight. The city sits just to the east of British Columbia’s…
