Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

Feb 28, 2005

New Volcano Threat: Just When You Think It's Safe ...

When a volcano blows and you think you're safe by the sea after the main event subsides, watch your back. That's the message in a new study of an eruption in the Caribbean. The research confirmed what scientists had expected, and the scenario is a bit frightening. The Soufriere Hills...

Feb 28, 2005

Mystery Behind Monday's 'Great' Earthquake

Monday's 8.7-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Sumatra apparently did not generate a significant tsunami, despite originating in the same area as the Dec. 26 earthquake that unleashed towering killer waves across the Indian Ocean. The reason remains a mystery for now. This new event is very significant - what...

Jan 31, 2005

Hawaii Lava Splashes into the Sea

Earlier this week, the Kilauea volcano began dripping molten rock into the Pacific at two new sites in Hawaii National Park. One of the new spots is about a mile and a half from a ranger station. Park visitors are being treated to a spectacle as the flows, at 2,100...

Jan 31, 2005

U.S. Exports Pollution to Europe

On Nov. 14, 2001, a low-pressure system caused a large mass of air huddled over the eastern half of the United States to rise up several miles, where it was then carried by the jet stream to Europe. This plume brought with it carbon monoxide, ozone, and other pollutants from...

Jan 31, 2005

New Large Iceberg Breaks off Antarctica

A new iceberg about twice the size of Dallas broke off an Antarctic ice shelf, scientists said Friday. The event is the latest in a series of breakups of the Larsen B ice shelf, which until recent years had endured several millennia without such major change. The breakup has coincided...

Jan 31, 2005

Tsunami Earthquake Three Times Larger Than First Thought

A new analysis of the December earthquake that caused disastrous tsunami waves to strike Asia and Africa finds it was three times more powerful than earlier measurements suggested. This would make it the second largest earthquake ever instrumentally recorded. Seismologists Seth Stein and Emile Okal from Northwestern University said Tuesday...

Jan 31, 2005

Central U.S. Warned of Larger Earthquakes to Come

A moderate earthquake that rattled parts of Arkansas and Tennessee Thursday should serve as a wake-up call to the central United States about the potential for much stronger events, experts said. The temblor, preliminarily put at magnitude 4.1, shook eastern Arkansas and western Tennessee early in the morning. It was...

Jan 31, 2005

Quake Death Toll in 2004 Could Be Worst Since 1556

A final analysis of the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami is likely to create a death toll in 2004 greater than any caused by ground shaking in more than four centuries. While the total deaths from the Dec. 26, 2004 disaster remains uncertain, it stands at 275,950, according to a...

Jan 31, 2005

Northwest Not Ready for Real Drought, Study Suggests

Historical droughts in the Columbia River Basin were more severe than anything in recent memory, including the drought of 1992-93, scientists said Monday. A study of tree rings found four droughts between 1750 and 1950 that were much more severe than anything in recent memory because they persisted for years....

Jan 31, 2005

Caution: Global Warming May be Hazardous to Your Health

If Earth's climate warms steadily in coming decades, as many scientists predict, heavy smog and extreme weather events could increase health risks in the United States and around the world, scientists said this weekend. Warmer temperatures could bring increased rainfall to some regions, computer models suggest, as well as heat...

Jan 31, 2005

Creatures Frozen for 32,000 Years Still Alive

A new type of organism discovered in an Arctic tunnel came to life in the lab after being frozen for 32,000 years. The deep-freeze bacteria could point to new methods of cryogenics, and they are the sort of biology scientists say might exist on Mars and other planets and moons....

Jan 31, 2005

A New Spin on Earth's Rotation

We all know that money makes the world go round, but what causes it to change speed ever so slightly? The Earth is known to constantly slow down and speed up, which imperceptibly alters the length of our days. We are taught that the day is 24 hours, or 86,400...

Dec 31, 2004

Tsunami-Generating Earthquake Near U.S. Possibly Imminent

There are only two places in the United States where colliding tectonic plates could cause a major tsunami, and new studies show a new earthquake in at least one of these locations could be imminent. The Cascadia subduction zone, a 680-mile fault that runs 50 miles off the coast of...

Dec 31, 2004

Tsunami Didn't Redraw Asian Coastlines

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) _ Aerial images of tsunami-battered coastlines suggest the world map may be changed forever, with chunks of land sinking into the sea. But did the quake and the killer wave it spawned really significantly reshape the Indian Ocean's outline? Scientists say probably not. Almost all the apparent...

Dec 31, 2004

Tsunami Special Report

The earthquake and tsunami of Dec. 26, 2004 combined to create a disaster in Asia that is among the worst in recorded history. Though significant tsunamis are rare, it was not the first event of its kind. Tsunamis have proven incredibly deadly in the past. In 1896 a tsunami caused...