1+ day, 1+ hour ago   (1015+ words) Lakes across northern North America buried carbon at a steady rate for thousands of years, but that changed dramatically after 1850. Leaves, pollen and washed-in soil sink to the bottom of a lake and settle into mud, and the carbon in…...

4+ day, 5+ hour ago   (863+ words) Scientists developed a new method to identify where strain is building along major faults, revealing where massive earthquakes are more likely to strike. Nobody can tell you exactly when an earthquake will hit. But a team of scientists has gotten…...

6+ day, 2+ hour ago   (701+ words) A rare satellite view reveals the persistent lava lake inside Mount Michael, an active volcano on remote Saunders Island near Antarctica. At first glance, Saunders Island looks locked in winter. Sea ice crowds the dark water, snow covers the land,…...

6+ day, 4+ hour ago   (1048+ words) Yellowstone's geysers depend on melting snow, so a hotter, drier climate points to fewer eruptions and more wildfire on the plateau. People plan whole trips around standing at the rail at Old Faithful, waiting for the water to go up....

2+ week, 5+ day ago   (1034+ words) Seismic waves cross icy ground far faster than dry soil, giving future Moon missions a way to map lunar ice before anyone digs. NASA plans to land astronauts near the Moon’s south pole in 2028, and everything they drink or breathe…...

2+ week, 5+ day ago   (1248+ words) Carbon from Arctic permafrost washing into the sea is not readily used by seabed microbes that prefer fresh marine carbon sources. Arctic coasts are eroding fast, and the soil dropping into the sea has been frozen as permafrost since the…...

3+ week, 5+ day ago   (945+ words) Grand Canyon rock dates back 1.75 billion years, yet the canyon is younger than 10 million. New zircon evidence points to a lake that spilled westward and began the carving. The Grand Canyon stretches 277 miles (446 km) across northern Arizona and drops more…...

3+ week, 5+ day ago   (1008+ words) Plate tectonics loads a fault over centuries, but something else usually decides the moment it finally breaks. Research on California seismicity shows that groundwater cycles, stress from neighboring ruptures, and fluid injected underground can all nudge a fault past its…...

4+ week, 2+ day ago   (1012+ words) Ice-covered Antarctica is scientifically classified as Earth's largest desert and how extreme cold and low precipitation define a polar desert. A desert is not defined by sand, and it is not defined by heat. It is defined by the absence…...