Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

Oct 6, 2023

'One of the biggest on record': Ozone hole bigger than North America opens above Antarctica

This year's hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica is one of the biggest ever seen, satellite data shows. Experts believe the huge gap in Earth's protective shield may have been caused by the eruption of Tonga's underwater volcano in early 2022. The ozone layer is a band of Earth's...

Oct 16, 2023

A strong El Niño is coming this winter. What does that mean?

Winter is still weeks away, but meteorologists are already talking about a snowy winter ahead in the southern Rockies and the Sierra Nevada. They anticipate more storms in the U.S. South and Northeast, and warmer, drier conditions across the already dry Pacific Northwest and the upper Midwest. One phrase comes...

Oct 23, 2023

Amazon's 'flying rivers' of vapor are drying up in an unprecedented drought. Here's how to save them.

The drought plaguing the Amazon is a worrying portrait of the climate challenges facing the world. The combination of the El Niño phenomenon and anthropogenic climate change has played a significant role in accentuating this extreme weather event. The Amazon region, known for its lush rainforest and flowing rivers, is...

Nov 27, 2023

How big can snowflakes get?

In 1887, a rancher named Matt Coleman spotted huge snowflakes that had fallen onto one of his cattle pastures in western Montana during a snowstorm and declared them as larger than milk pans. With a width of 15 inches (38 centimeters) and a thickness of nearly 8 inches (20 cm),...

Nov 27, 2023

Big blob of hot water in Pacific may be making El Niño act weirdly

A weird blob of warm water that has appeared in the western Pacific seems to be making this year's strong El Niño behave unexpectedly, reports The Washington Post. The blob is located in the west-central Pacific, near the International Dateline — a north-south boundary that separates two consecutive calendar dates...

Nov 30, 2023

Controversial study suggesting ozone hole isn't recovering is skewed by bad data, experts say

A controversial new study has sparked concerns that the ozone hole above Antarctica is not recovering as fast as we thought it was, and may even be getting bigger. However, many experts who were not involved in the study have rejected those claims, criticizing the quality of the research. The...

Dec 21, 2023

Extremely rare 'rainbow clouds' light up Arctic skies for 3 days in a row

Spectacular rainbow-colored clouds have been shimmering in the skies over and around the Arctic for more than three days thanks to an unusual cold snap in the upper atmosphere. And even more of these technicolor treats could appear during the next few months, experts say. The colorful clouds, known as...

Feb 2, 2024

How accurate are Punxsutawney Phil's Groundhog Day forecasts?

Celebrity groundhog Punxsutawney Phil emerged from his burrow on Friday (Feb. 2, 2024) as a crowd in his home town in Pennsylvania waited with bated breath, wondering if the rodent would see his shadow. He didn't. According to legend, this means spring will come early this year. If the groundhog...

Feb 29, 2024

Satellite snaps eerily circular holes in the clouds above Florida. What caused them?

A cluster of eerily circular holes recently appeared in the clouds above Florida, a stunning new NASA image shows. The rare occurrence, which has previously (and incorrectly) been linked to UFOs, has a surprisingly simple explanation — but it took scientists more than 60 years to figure it out. NASA's...

Mar 23, 2021

Drone footage reveals dramatic Iceland volcanic eruption

After a 900-year nap, a volcano in Iceland erupted Friday (March 19), spewing tendrils of molten lava down its flanks and bathing the cloudy night sky in an ominous orange-red. Gorgeous and fiery photos show the Fagradalsfjall volcano, located about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of Reykjavik near the Reykjanes...

Apr 9, 2021

Explosive volcanic eruption rocks Caribbean island, as evacuations continue

A volcano on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent erupted on Friday (April 9) following increased seismic activity and mandatory evacuations in the area, spewing ash tens of thousands of feet into the air. At 9:08 a.m. ET, St. Vincent and Grenadines' National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO) tweeted that the...

May 23, 2021

Congo's Mount Nyiragongo volcano blows its top, sending thousands fleeing across border

The Congo's Mount Nyiragongo erupted Saturday night (May 22), sending thousands of people fleeing across the border into Rwanda and filling the skies with orange-red smoke. By Sunday morning, the lava flow had slowed, stopping just short of the area's major transit hub Goma, and so far no directly related...

Jun 11, 2021

Summer School with Live Science: Lemon volcanoes

This Friday (June 11), we will explore the eruptive realm of acid-base chemistry in our new kids video series: Summer School with Live Science. In this week's installment, Live Science producer, Diana Whitcroft, will demonstrate the reaction between sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and citric acid (lemon juice, in this case)....

Jul 6, 2021

Rare mud volcano explodes into towering inferno in Caspian Sea

A towering inferno, hundreds of feet tall, burned above the Caspain Sea on Sunday (July 4) after a massive explosion in Azerbaijan's oil and gas fields. The culprit? A mud volcano, authorities now say. The blast occurred around 9:30 p.m. local time (1:30 p.m. ET) around 6 miles (10 kilometers)...

Jul 23, 2021

'Eye of Sauron' volcano and other deep-sea structures discovered in underwater 'Mordor'

Researchers exploring the Indian Ocean have discovered the remains of a collapsed underwater volcano with an uncanny resemblance to the all-seeing Eye of Sauron from J.R.R. Tolkien's famous fantasy series The Lord of the Rings, as well as two other seafloor structures named after places in Tolkien's Middle-earth. The eye...