A new fissure opened on the Reykjanes peninsula in southwestern Iceland near Grindavík in December 2023 and continued erupting throughout 2024. Whether sparked by lightning, intentional land-clearing, ...

A new fissure opened on the Reykjanes peninsula in southwestern Iceland near Grindavík in December 2023 and continued erupting throughout 2024. Whether sparked by lightning, intentional land-clearing, ...

NASA will launch four Earth science missions in 2022 to provide scientists with more information about fundamental climate systems and processes including extreme storms, surface water and oceans, and ...

NASA will launch four Earth science missions in 2022 to provide scientists with more information about fundamental climate systems and processes including extreme storms, surface water and oceans, and ...

Every month on Earth Matters, we offer a puzzling satellite image. The December 2024 puzzler is shown above. Your challenge is to use the comments section to tell us where it is, what we are looking ...

When scientists started to analyze the paleoclimate evidence in the Greenland and Antarctic ice cores, they found that the record also supported Milankovitch’s theory of when ice ages should occur.

The impact of increased surface temperatures is significant in itself. But global warming will have additional, far-reaching effects on the planet. Warming modifies rainfall patterns, amplifies ...

Phytoplankton thrive along coastlines and continental shelves, along the equator in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, and in high-latitude areas. Winds play a strong role in the distribution of ...

Colleagues in the Caltech Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences steered him toward remote-sensing scientist Michael Abrams of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Abrams is the lead scientist for ...

Variations in TSI are due to a balance between decreases caused by sunspots and increases caused by bright areas called faculae which surround sunspots. Sunspots are dark blotches on the Sun in which ...

The creosote bush (Larrea tridentata) is a medium-sized evergreen shrub. It has small pointed green leaves with a waxy coating. These leaves have adapted to conserve water and survive high ...

A saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantca) has a smooth, waxy skin that seals in moisture. Cacti expand by absorbing water when it is available and shrink as they lose water slowly during times of drought.