16+ hour, 37+ min ago   (1027+ words) Scientists have found a new explanation for why Antarctica became covered in ice millions of years before the Arctic. The international study, published in Science, addresses a long-standing climate mystery: how Antarctica could develop a massive ice sheet at a…...

5+ day, 6+ hour ago   (378+ words) A colossal cliff system created as the supercontinent Rodinia broke apart may have exposed the heart of the Grand Canyon nearly a billion years before the Colorado River carved it. The ancient landscape could also help explain why enormous sections…...

5+ day, 8+ hour ago   (881+ words) More than 450 million years ago, long before dinosaurs appeared and before animals or plants had spread widely across dry land, crinoids were already thriving in some of Earth's earliest coral reefs. These ancient relatives of starfish looked somewhat like flowers…...

3+ week, 30+ min ago   (485+ words) A Vast Magma System With No Obvious Warning Signs Some of the world's best-known volcanic regions, including Yellowstone National Park in the United States, Lake Toba in Indonesia, and Lake Taupo in New Zealand, sit above magma reservoirs containing thousands…...

3+ week, 1+ day ago   (846+ words) The Arctic's frozen ground contains enormous stores of organic carbon. As permafrost thaws and coastlines erode, some of that carbon is carried into the ocean. There, microorganisms can break it down and release greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change....

3+ week, 1+ day ago   (767+ words) Water buried beneath the moon may be detectable by listening to how vibrations move through the lunar ground. Researchers from the University of Maryland, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Hawaii have found that seismic waves, the same…...

4+ week, 8+ hour ago   (860+ words) A vast reservoir of magma beneath Japan's Kikai caldera appears to be filling again, offering scientists a rare glimpse into how some of Earth's largest volcanoes recover after catastrophic eruptions. The discovery, led by researchers at Kobe University, could improve…...

1+ mon, 4+ hour ago   (989+ words) Humans and every other vertebrate may share an astonishingly strange ancestor: a tiny creature with a single eye centered on the top of its head. Recent research from Lund University and the University of Sussex proposes that the earliest ancestor…...

1+ mon, 1+ week ago   (519+ words) A rare type of meteorite known as a CO chondrite was likely the object that slammed into Earth 66 million years ago and triggered the extinction of about 75 percent of all species, including every non-avian dinosaur. Researchers from the University of…...

1+ mon, 1+ week ago   (236+ words) Scientists have found evidence that a major Cascadia earthquake could trigger a second quake on the San Andreas Fault. The discovery came from unusual sediment layers formed by underwater landslides recorded over thousands of years. These patterns suggest both fault…...