earth science

What caused a slowdown in climate change at the turn of the millennium?

Over the past century, we’ve witnessed a rise in the greenhouse gas methane in our atmosphere. But for a few years at the turn of the millennium, methane levels tapered off and reached a stable state before starting to climb again. If we could just figure out what caused this slowdown, and replicate it, we…

io9 Annalee Newitz Aug 10

The first successful prediction of an undersea volcano eruption

The Axial Seamount is an undersea volcano located 250 miles off the Oregon coast. It’s one of the most active underwater volcanoes in the world, and it’s just started erupting. For the first time ever, scientists saw that eruption coming. Could their technique help give early warning to people living in regions where volcanoes might…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Aug 9

This is why you’re hot

The US has entered the 34th day of a crippling heat wave, with no sign of relief in sight. According to the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), July’s broiling temperatures affected close to 200 million Americans, and set 2,755 daily-high records across the country — including at least one record in every state. The map…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Aug 5

The best solution to world thirst may be desalination

Water may be flowing on Mars, but where we really need it is here on Earth. Over 75% of our planet’s surface is covered in water, yet 2 billion people worldwide reside in water-stressed countries. With fresh water accounting for a meager 3% of Earth’s total water supply (and the vast majority of it locked…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Aug 4

Could iron dust stop global warming in its tracks?

The Ice Age can be explained by some well-placed specks of iron. Adding dust to the waters around Antarctica can supercharge plankton growth, causing global temperature drops. To stop climate change, we need a whole lot of iron filings. Here’s how the process works. Most of the time, the Southern Ocean is pretty much bereft…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Aug 3

Frogs are dying in record numbers. Now you can help scientists study this problem.

For decades, zoologists have been dismayed to watch frog and other amphibian populations shrinking dramatically all over the world. In some areas, as many as a third of the local frog species are threatened with extinction. Some scientists say it’s more like half of all species. https://gizmodo.com/frog-deaths-are-a-harbinger-of-sixth-mass-extinction-5036187 The cause of the rapid fall in frog…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jul 26

Bizarre volcanoes on the far side of the Moon erupted with gooey, viscous lava

Though scientists believed volcanoes on the Moon to be long dead, a recent discovery suggests they were active as recently as 800 million years ago, which is fairly recent in geological time. Even weirder, volcanoes studied on the far side of the Moon appear to have erupted with a very unusual kind of lava, made…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jul 26

Flawed diamonds reveal the shape of a lost Earth

A tiny, blood-red flaw inside a diamond can reveal what was happening to Earth 3 billion years ago. A recent scientific study of thousands of flawed diamonds like this one have given us a window into our planet’s strange and violent past. We have a pretty good understanding of the continental plates’ behavior on Earth…

io9 Tim Barribeau Jul 23

200 million years ago, half the world died from a massive methane eruption

A little over 200 million years ago, when Earth had only one mega-continent called Pangaea, fifty percent of life in the oceans died abruptly. What happened? Researchers long believed that this event, called the End-Triassic mass extinction, might have been caused by intense volcanic activity as Pangaea broke into two smaller continents. But a new…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jul 21

The tale of the epic struggle to make an Earth sandwich

Or at least the epic struggle to make an earth sandwich without getting the bread soggy. Where on earth could you put a piece of bread, on dry land, while having a bit of dry land on the other side to put the other piece of bread on? The world is a lot sloshier than…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Jul 21

Why did the temperature of the Red Sea rise abruptly in 1995?

In 1995, the temperature of the Red Sea rose abruptly. It’s already-warm waters became 0.7°C hotter, which is a significant amount for a body of water whose reefs support life that’s adapted for a very specific temperature. Scientists studying the Red Sea recently published a study using satellite data to prove that the temperature spike…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jul 19

Explorers discover 3 billion-year-old life forms off the coast of Michigan

In mysterious sinkholes beneath the waters of Lake Huron, scientists have been exploring strange pockets of life that shouldn’t exist on present-day Earth. The microbes researchers have found would have been perfectly comfortable on the Earth of 3 billion years ago, before we had oxygen in the atmosphere. How did the bottom of Lake Huron…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jul 18

Asteroids are making Earth’s weather unpredictable

Ceres and Vesta are two of the largest asteroids in the Belt, and their power extends far beyond the band of rocks they inhabit between Jupiter and Mars. Astronomers have discovered that these asteroids’ gravitational effects introduced “strong chaos” into the Earth’s orbit, making it impossible to know the exact path the Earth took around…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jul 18

Where is all the Earth’s heat coming from?

Earth runs on massive amounts of heat, enough to melt iron in the core and create our magnetic field, enough to power the constant movement of plate tectonics. Where all this heat comes from is a mystery…but we’re getting closer. Forty-four trillion watts worth of heat is constantly flowing out of the Earth’s interior into…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jul 17

This lost continent off the coast of Scotland disappeared beneath the ocean 55 million years ago

This week, a group of geologists report that they’ve found a lost continent off the coast of Scotland. 55 million years ago, about 10 million years after dinosaurs died out, a chunk of the seafloor erupted from beneath the water. It created a small continent that existed for at least a million years, covered in…

Tech News Annalee Newitz Jul 12

A map of future undersea mining facilities

Rare earth elements like yttrium are difficult to extract from the ground, but they’re crucial ingredients in flat screens and consumer electronics. Now a group of researchers have discovered massive deposits of these elements in mud on the deep sea floor. They believe we could start mining ocean mud to build more smart phones. In…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jul 5

The trouble with predicting climate change

When you hear predictions about climate change, scientists often refer to simple models of gradual transformation. But new evidence suggests that climate change is likely to be abrupt, with the temperature of the planet rising quickly over only a few decades. University of Bristol Earth scientist Paul Valdes has spent his career researching how to…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jun 29

End the prejudice against non-native species! Embrace the new nature.

Gardners and biologists often grumble about the ways non-native animals and plants have invaded a region, spoiling things for all the locals. Sometimes a non-native species can destroy an ecosystem — a common example is the introduction of rabbits to Australia, where they have no native predators. Sometimes, however, they are far more beneficial than…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jun 9

New radar maps reveal the once and future fjords of Antarctica

A fjord is a deep valley carved by glaciers. Most famously, fjords were cut into the land by ice melt during Norway’s summers, when fast-moving rivers flow between stunningly tall cliffs. Now a group of researchers have discovered that the fjord was also common to Antarctica, back when its eastern ice sheet grew and shrank…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jun 2

Why we need volcanoes to build a high-tech society

In this io9 interview with Earth Scientist Jim Webster at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, you’ll learn why the technological revolution is dependent on volcanoes. They’re the source of most metals we use in our machines. Webster also explains how volcanoes can lead to climate change. Best of all, he takes…

io9 Annalee Newitz May 25

What caused a slowdown in climate change at the turn of the millennium?

The first successful prediction of an undersea volcano eruption

This is why you’re hot

The best solution to world thirst may be desalination

Could iron dust stop global warming in its tracks?

Frogs are dying in record numbers. Now you can help scientists study this problem.

Bizarre volcanoes on the far side of the Moon erupted with gooey, viscous lava

Flawed diamonds reveal the shape of a lost Earth

200 million years ago, half the world died from a massive methane eruption

The tale of the epic struggle to make an Earth sandwich

Why did the temperature of the Red Sea rise abruptly in 1995?

Explorers discover 3 billion-year-old life forms off the coast of Michigan

Asteroids are making Earth’s weather unpredictable

Where is all the Earth’s heat coming from?

This lost continent off the coast of Scotland disappeared beneath the ocean 55 million years ago

A map of future undersea mining facilities

The trouble with predicting climate change

End the prejudice against non-native species! Embrace the new nature.

New radar maps reveal the once and future fjords of Antarctica

Why we need volcanoes to build a high-tech society

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