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Nov 30, 2014

Rapid Warming Hits Antarctica's Shallow Seas

Ocean waters around Antarctica have warmed steadily for the past 40 years, according to a new study. Some shallow areas have also heated more quickly than others, and waters around Antarctica are growing less salty in some regions, researchers reported today (Dec. 4) in the journal Science. The changes have...

Nov 30, 2014

California's Worst Drought Ever Is 1st Taste of Future

The drought now plaguing California is the worst to parch the central and southern parts of the state in the last 1,200 years, a new study finds. The 2012 to 2014 drought's lack of rain isn't remarkable on its own, according to tree-ring records reported in the study. There have...

Nov 30, 2014

'Magic' Mushrooms in Royal Garden: What Is Fly Agaric?

Hallucinogenic mushrooms are perhaps the last thing you'd expect to find growing in the Queen of England's garden. Yet a type of mushroom called Amanita muscaria — commonly known as fly agaric, or fly amanita — was found growing in the gardens of Buckingham Palace by the producers of a...

Nov 30, 2014

Top 10 Cities That Will See More Storm Outages Revealed

Hurricane Sandy left Lower Manhattan completely dark, eerily bereft of the electricity that keeps New York City buzzing 24 hours a day. Across town, 34,000 people living in the Rockaways, an exposed spit of land that acts as a barrier island, were left without power for weeks when the storm...

Nov 30, 2014

Biggest Cloud-Seeding Experiment Yet Only Sparks More Debate

Meteorologists first conceived of seeding clouds as a way to increase rainfall in 1946, working at General Electric's laboratories in Schenectady, New York. But in the nearly 60 years since then, it has remained unclear whether human attempts to make it snow actually work. Now, the results of the most...

Nov 30, 2014

World's Saltiest Body of Water Seen from Space (Photo)

The world's saltiest body of water, hidden away in a dry Antarctic valley, had its portrait taken earlier this year by a NASA satellite. The image of the Don Juan Pond, a very shallow lake located in the lowest part of Antarctica's Upper Wright Valley, that NASA released today (Dec....

Nov 30, 2014

Hottest Year Ever: 5 Places Where 2014 Temps Really Cooked

Though the official numbers aren't in for December, it's likely that 2014 will go down as the planet's hottest year on record, at least since scientists started keeping tabs on global temperature. Data from three major climate-tracking groups agree: The combined land and ocean surface temperatures hit new highs this...

Oct 31, 2014

'Dark Ice' Speeds Up Melting in Greenland (Photos)

Ribbons of dark ice are exposed on the otherwise white, frozen landscape of Greenland every summer, and researchers think these bands could reveal how climate change will affect the huge island. Climate scientists Johnny Ryan, from Aberystwyth University in the United Kingdom, and Jason Box, from the Geological Survey of...

Oct 31, 2014

New Amazon Carbon Maps May Help Limit Deforestation

The vast jungle canopy of the Amazon looks like a solid wall of green from space to the human eye. But satellites and other high tech instruments can provide a much more nuanced view right down to the household level. That might sound like something the CIA would be interested...

Oct 31, 2014

Feel the Heat: Fourth-Warmest October for U.S.

It might be chilly (OK, downright Arctic) in the middle third of the U.S. these days, but if you live there, you can warm yourself with memories of October. According to new data released Thursday, October wasn’t just a little warm, it was the fourth-warmest October for the lower 48...

Oct 31, 2014

Secrets Cracked in Yosemite's Tuolumne Meadows

The broad, grassy plain of Yosemite National Park's Tuolumne Meadows is a welcome stop for visitors driving California's steep and winding Highway 120. But the wildflower-studded field is an oddball in Yosemite's iconic landscape of deep valleys and rugged peaks. The flat valley floor is a striking contrast to the...

Oct 31, 2014

Quiet 2014 Atlantic Hurricane Season Comes to a Close

The mellow 2014 Atlantic hurricane season ends Sunday (Nov. 30), marking another year without major hurricanes hitting the Eastern United States. It has been a record-breaking nine years since a Category 3 hurricane (or stronger) made landfall along U.S. coastlines. The last was Hurricane Wilma in 2005 (Sandy was not...

Sep 30, 2014

Why Asia's Glaciers Are Mysteriously Expanding, Not Melting

Updated on Oct. 13 at 11:33 a.m. ET. Glaciers around the world are melting, retreating and even vanishing altogether. But in the mountainous Karakoram region of Asia — home to K2, the second-highest peak on Earth — the glaciers aren't melting. If anything, some are expanding. Now, scientists have found...

Sep 30, 2014

Century-Old Notebook from Legendary Antarctic Expedition Found

Hidden in ice for more than 100 years, the photography notebook of a British explorer on Captain Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated expedition to Antarctica has been found. The book belonged to George Murray Levick, a surgeon, zoologist and photographer on Scott's 1910-1913 voyage. Levick might be best remembered for his...

Sep 30, 2014

A New Way to Form Continents

This article was originally published on The Conversation. The publication contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. From the 1950s until recently, we thought we had a clear idea of how continents form. Most people will have heard of plate tectonics: moving pieces on the surface...