All things geology, climate, oceans, and more
Weather watchers may be more preoccupied of late with storms popping off in the Gulf of Mexico and the eastern Pacific, but a very unusual cyclone also spun up over the Arctic this week—and it could spell more bad news for the region’s ailing sea ice. The Arctic is no stranger to cyclones, but the…
Well that escalated quickly. Hurricane Aletta became the first tropical storm of the eastern Pacific hurricane season on Thursday, and by Friday morning it had spun up into a Category 4 monster. The storm might not be done ramping up, either. The meteorological marvel is thankfully not forecast to make landfall (though rip currents and…
In the not-too-distant geologic past when global temperatures weren’t too much warmer than they are today, black flies called midges buzzed around a lake in northwest Greenland. Their discovery suggests temperatures could have routinely reached a balmy 50 degrees Fahrenheit in the summertime—a profound climactic switch that could foreshadow Greenland’s future. The findings, published Monday in…
It’s that dreaded time of year again: meteorologists are talking about hurricanes for the upcoming season. After the widespread death and destruction these tropical tyrants brought on from Texas to Puerto Rico last year, hurricanes have not been off our minds for long—if at all. I’m shaking in my boots. Knowledge is one of the…
U.S. coastlines saw record levels of high tide flooding last year, thanks to a combination of powerful storms and rising seas. This year is forecast to approach or even surpass that record. The news comes in a report released Wednesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which used data from 98 tidal gauges around…
Kilauea’s lava has continued to spread its fiery tentacles over the Big Island. Overnight on Monday, lava reached the sea near Kapoho Bay. As dawn rose on Tuesday, it became clear that it had consumed hundreds of houses to get there. Kilauea’s East Rift Zone has been the site of an ongoing eruption for weeks.…
If there’s a final frontier on the surface of our planet, it’s East Antarctica, a vast region of largely-unexplored mountains and canyons covered in a mantle of ice thousands of feet thick. The latest indication of how little we know about East Antarctica? We basically just learned it’s seismically active. Until now, exactly nine seismic…
On Sunday, a major volcanic eruption rocked Guatemala. At least 25 are dead after Volcan de Fuego, one of the most active volcanoes in Central America, sent pyroclastic flows of super heated gas, ash and debris rumbling down its flank. An estimated 1.7 million people have been impacted by the eruption, which caused ash to…
As we continue to burn fossil fuels like there’s no tomorrow, an insidious transformation is taking place under our noses. Remote ecosystems in our planet’s far north are changing at a scale that’s hard to imagine. A new study published in Global Change Biology is making that imagination part a bit easier. It estimates that…
June Gloom season is upon Southern California. For as long as anyone can remember, that’s meant clouds wrapping the landscape in a milky white cocoon as cool, moist ocean air known as the marine layer moves inland. But as with everything in our world, this is now changing. June—and summer as a whole, it turns out—is…
Any day with a new full disk image of Earth is a good day. And folks, today is one of those days. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) launched the GOES-17 satellite in March. It’s a next generation weather satellite that will provide a major upgrade over what NOAA is currently operating with over…
Kilauea’s days of pumping old, stale magma to the surface are officially over and done. According to scientists with the US Geological Survey (USGS), the volcano is tapping the hottest, freshest magma it possibly can, which is making for some frighteningly fast-moving flows. On Wednesday, the USGS Hawaii Volcano Observatory reported epic, 200-foot tall lava…
The early start to hurricane season continues with what could be the first landfalling tropical cyclone to make it to Lake Michigan on record. Tropical Depression Alberto has been the weird storm that could, improbably moving from the Gulf of Mexico to Indiana. The last advisory the National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued for the storm,…
Lessons on climate change don’t require wonky charts or boring lectures. They can sometimes be as simple—and cute—as an animated video featuring penguins, an elephant seal, and some researchers ready for the freezing temperatures of Antarctica. That’s the takeaway from this video released during the Hay Festival, which strives to present art and science ideas…
If you live anywhere in the eastern U.S., you had a moment this winter when you just wished it was summer. Maybe it was during the polar vortex cold snap in January. Maybe it was after the bomb cyclone or during any of the endless nor’easters. Or perhaps it was when your baseball team’s games…
After blue flames, towering ash clouds, and gurgling fountains of lava, the fourth horseman of the volcanic apocalypse has arrived at Kilauea: Hawaii’s most active volcano has created its own weather system. The U.S Geological Survey (USGS) reported that billowing pyrocumulus clouds are rising over Kilauea’s angry eruption at Fissure 8 in the Lower East…
Antarctica’s icy mantle hides a truly fantastical world, and we’re still trying to understand its contours. Case in point: a new study has revealed three monstrous canyons on par with the Grand Canyon. The discovery is both wow-worthy and vital to understanding what will happen to Antarctica’s ice as it melts. Scientists have long wondered…
It’s six days from the official start of hurricane season, but we already have our first named storm. The National Hurricane Center has started issuing advisories on Subtropical Storm Alberto, which…wait, what in tarnation is a subtropical storm? During hurricane season, your tropical weather usually comes in three flavors: tropical depression, tropical storm, and hurricane.…
We’ve had no shortage of incredible imagery of Kilauea’s eruption over the past three weeks. But while aerial footage is perhaps best for conveying the epic fury of lava fountains, images from space offer a different perspective. This one, for instance, highlights just how searingly hot the landscape is. The false-color image was captured Wednesday…
The respite from last year’s record hurricane season was too short and unsettled for residents from Houston to San Juan. And now it’s almost over. On Thursday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released its outlook for the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season, which officially begins on June 1 (though it could get underway before…
