4+ hour, 24+ min ago   (859+ words) Antarctica helps set the temperature far beyond its own coastline, reflecting sunlight, driving deep ocean currents, and storing enough ice to raise global sea level by more than 190 feet. New research suggests several of those functions have started to shift,…...

13+ hour, 54+ min 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…...

7+ hour, 40+ min ago   (1241+ words) Archaeologists found a 4,000-year-old painted stone in Indonesia that may trace the shared beliefs and identities carried by ancient ocean voyagers. Moving means deciding what to carry and what to leave behind. Four thousand years ago, people crossing open ocean…...

14+ hour, 5+ min ago   (782+ words) No drill has ever reached the mantle, so scientists depend on volcanoes to deliver the samples instead. Lava from Hawaii and Iceland carries helium, ruthenium, and tungsten signatures that point to a source near the boundary with Earth's core, about…...

9+ hour, 17+ min 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…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago   (1112+ words) A young underwater volcano near Mayotte has carried a chemical memory of Earth’s birth all the way to the seafloor. And it’s an ancient one. Lava from Fani… Lava from Fani Maoré contains signs of mantle material formed within the…...

3+ day, 16+ hour 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…...

5+ day, 21+ hour ago   (800+ words) U.S. rivers are moving sediment in shorter, more extreme bursts as heavier rainfall, urbanization, and forest loss reshape river flows. Rivers have always carried sediment in fits and starts, dumping most of it during storms rather than spreading it evenly across…...

1+ week, 6+ day ago   (793+ words) Mount Thawr rises south of the Grand Mosque in Mecca and is known around the world for its place in Islamic history. During the migration to Medina, the Prophet Muhammad and his companion Abu Bakr took refuge in the Cave…...

2+ week, 4+ day ago   (1120+ words) Stand at the waterline on any beach and watch for a few minutes. Most waves die at roughly the same spot on the sand. Then one runs far past it and soaks the towel you were sure you’d left out…...