Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

Jun 30, 2019

SoCal Has An 8% Chance of Another Huge Quake This Week

There's an 8% chance that Southern California could be rocked by another magnitude 6.0 or above earthquake this week, according to seismologists. The region trembled under the effects of two large quakes last week, one a magnitude 6.4 on July 4 and one a magnitude 7.1 on July 5, both...

Jun 30, 2019

Last Month Was the Hottest June on Earth Ever Recorded

If you thought last month felt really, really hot, you were right. June 2019 was the hottest June on record for the globe. And, it was the second month in a row that balmy temperatures caused Antarctic sea ice coverage to reach a record low. The sizzling average land and...

Jun 30, 2019

The First Glacier Killed by Climate Change Is Getting a Haunting Memorial in Iceland

Vikings thought it was a dead troll. Now, it's just dead ice. Okjökull (or just Ok, for short) is one of 400 ancient glaciers crowning the mountains of Iceland — at least, it was, until global warming shrank it so much that Ok officially lost its glacier status in 2014....

May 31, 2019

Is It Safe to Visit Chernobyl?

Chernobyl, site of the world's deadliest nuclear accident, is now a surprisingly popular tourist destination. But lethal radiation still permeates the landscape around the site, so why is it safe to visit at all? Ukrainian officials opened the area to tourists nearly a decade ago, declaring that visits were safe,...

May 31, 2019

Glowing 'Blue Tears' in China's Seas Are Incredibly Toxic — And They’re Growing

On summer nights, the waters surrounding Taiwan's Matsu Islands cast an eerie blue glow. The phenomenon, known as China's blue tears, is actually caused by a bloom of tiny, bioluminescent creatures called dinoflagellates. Tourists from all over China come to view the twinkling seascape. The bloom in the East China...

May 31, 2019

Arctic Permafrost Is Going Through a Rapid Meltdown — 70 Years Early

In the Canadian Arctic, layers of permafrost that scientists expected to remain frozen for at least 70 years have already begun thawing. The once-frozen surface is now sinking and dotted with melt ponds and from above looks a bit like Swiss cheese, satellite images reveal. We were astounded that this...

May 31, 2019

'Flesh-Eating' Bacteria May Be Spreading to Beaches Once Thought Off-Limits. Here's Why.

Flesh-eating bacteria that live in the ocean may be spreading to previously unaffected beach waters thanks to climate change, according to a new report. The report authors described five cases of severe flesh-eating bacterial infections in people who were exposed to water or seafood from the Delaware Bay, which sits...

May 31, 2019

Whoa! Enormous 'Cotton Candy' Explosion in Kids' Chemistry Lab

See more An instructor and two children pour three cups of powder into a bin of red liquid. Suddenly — poof — a cloud of what looks like cotton candy explodes toward the ceiling. This popular video on Twitter comes courtesy of the Malay-language account w, which shares science content....

Apr 30, 2019

5 Weird Things You Didn't Know About Chernobyl

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded more than three decades ago, in 1986, but you can watch it unfold on HBO's TV miniseries Chernobyl, which premiered earlier this week. While most people know the general story — that due to human error, the nuclear reactor exploded and unleashed radioactive material...

Apr 30, 2019

Octopuses May Go Blind As Climate Change Sucks Oxygen Out of the Ocean

Editor's Note: This story was updated at 11:20 a.m. E.D.T. on Friday, May 17 Turning light particles into visual information is hard work, and your body relies on oxygen to get the job done. This is true whether you walk the land on two limbs or swim through the sea...

Apr 30, 2019

Violent Tornadoes and Flooding Are Expected in Oklahoma and Texas Tonight

A map shows the regions at risk of a tornado outbreak on May 20, 2019. (Image credit: NWS SPC)Oklahoma, northwest Texas and the Texas Panhandle are bracing for a day of extreme weather, including dangerous tornadoes, flooding and thunderstorms. Numerous intense and long-track tornadoes are expected in the region today...

Apr 30, 2019

Why Are So Many People Dying on Mount Everest?

Massively long lines at Mount Everest's frigid summit — partly due to a few days of good weather — may have contributed to the deaths of seven climbers this week, news sources report. These crowds led to a deadly traffic jam. One of the mountaineers who died, 27-year-old Nihal Bagwan,...

Apr 30, 2019

This Seawater Is 20,000 Years Old, and Has Remained Untouched Since the Last Ice Age

Twenty thousand years ago, life on Earth was a lot cooler. It was the tail end of a 100,000-year ice age — also called the Last Glacial Maximum — and massive sheets of ice covered much of North America, Northern Europe and Asia. (If they had been around at the...

Mar 31, 2019

Turbulent Blobs in Earth's Core May Explain Sudden Jerks in the Magnetic Field

Earth's magnetic shield defends our planet from the scourges of solar wind and cosmic radiation, making life on our planet possible. But every 10 years or so, it can be a real jerk. Geomagnetic jerks are abrupt changes in the strength of Earth's magnetic field. While some variations in this...

Mar 31, 2019

In Diamonds' Flaws, Finding the Secret History of Continents

Tiny flaws in diamonds hold the secret to the formation of the first continents. In a new study, researchers used inclusions — imperfections derided by jewelers but valuable to scientists — to trace diamond formation. They found that the sulfide minerals inside the inclusions were last at the surface of...