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Gigantic Plume Beneath Yellowstone Now Even More Gigantic
The geysers of Yellowstone are a reminder of the potential danger that lies below---a supervolcano that last erupted some 70,000 years ago. The Yellowstone region sits on a volcanic hotspot, similar to the one that creates the Hawaiian islands. That hotspot first pushed through the Earth's surface ...
April 15, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
What Is A Nuclear Meltdown?
Until this weekend, you were more likely to see the term "meltdown" in a story about Charlie Sheen than just about anywhere else. But with the earthquake and tsunami striking Japan late last week and setting off crisis situations at several nuclear reactors, the term is now spread across the headli...
March 15, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Seven Factors That Contribute to the Destructiveness of an Earthquake
A magnitude-6.3 earthquake shook Christchurch, New Zealand yesterday, collapsing buildings, triggering landslides and flooding, and killing dozens of people. A more powerful magnitude-7.1 quake rattled the city last September but didn't cause nearly as much damage, with no fatalities. Why do some e...
February 23, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Climate Change and Winter Storms
If only global warming were as simple as that term implies. Temperatures would increase at a steady rate around the globe, winters would become milder, snow less common. The only victims would be ski slopes and polar bears.But climate change—the preferred term for our global phenomenon—is messier. ...
February 03, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
La Nina Brings Flooding to Australia
If you think everything is bigger in Texas, then you've never been to Australia, where an area as large as that U.S. state is now under water. And flooding across this section of the state of Queensland, north of Brisbane, could last for weeks. The culprit? La Niña.La Niña is the cold water counter...
January 05, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Year in Science: A List of Lists
It's the end of the year, so you know what that means—it's time for the parade of "year in review" articles. Start with Smithsonian.com's Top 10 Stories of 2010, which features lots of science, and then move on to these others:* Discover magazine picked the top 100 stories of 2010 (and my brother w...
December 29, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Ten Science Stories You Should Have Read
Is your office rather empty this week? Looking for something to read to fill the time? How about some great science and nature stories from Smithsonian? Here are my ten favorites from the past year:The Truth About Lions (January): Staff writer Abigail Tucker visits Craig Packer, who has been runnin...
December 28, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Why Climate Change Brings Both More and Less Water
Among the more perplexing bits of climate change research are the predictions for both more droughts and more floods. How could that be? Well, when I was reporting the recently published story on the Colorado River, geoscientist Bradley Udall, director of the University of Colorado's Western Water ...
October 05, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Hurricanes' Dangerous Rip Currents
The U.S. East Coast is likely to miss out on most of the destructive forces of Hurricanes Danielle and Earl this week, with both just skimming by off the coast. But a miss on land doesn't mean that the storms have no effect. In fact, they've both brought powerful waves and, more worrisome, rip curr...
September 02, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Tornado That Saved Washington
On the night of August 24, 1814, British troops led by Rear Admiral Sir George Cockburn marched on Washington, D.C. and set fire to most of the city. Dolley Madison famously saved the Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington and a copy of the Declaration of Independence before she fled to nearb...
August 25, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Hurricanes and the Color of the Oceans
Little kids draw the ocean as blue, but the seas are more complex in color than that. They can be a rich turquoise, like the shallow waters of the Bahamas, or a dark greeny blue, nearly black, out in the middle of the deep oceans. Depth and life, specifically phytoplankton, both influence the ocean...
August 16, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Italian Scientists May Face Trial for Not Predicting 2009 Earthquake
Earthquakes are scary for many reasons. They can be devastating, leveling whole cities and killing millions. They can cause massive tsunamis. And though scientists can make predictions of where earthquakes are likely to occur, we never know when the Big One will happen.That last bit, however, hasn'...
July 06, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
A Letter From Earth
Dear members of the species Homo sapiens,Hi. I'm Earth. While I'm pleased and flattered that you have chosen to honor me on every April 22 for the last 40 years, I am seriously concerned and, frankly, very angry that most of you seem to forget me for the rest of the year. I periodically try to remi...
April 21, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Icelandic Volcano: A Mere Inconvenience in Historical Terms
Volcanoes erupt every week around the world (just check out the weekly reports from Smithsonian's Global Volcanism Program and you'll see what I mean), but most of them don't cause problems. Those that do, including the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull that shut down European airspace for days, a...
April 20, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Chilean Earthquake Moved City Ten Feet
The February 27 magnitude-8.8 earthquake in Chile moved the city of Concepción, located 65 miles south of the epicenter, at least 10 feet to the west, according to a new analysis.Just think about it: There was enough power in that earthquake to move an entire city—people, buildings and all the land...
March 09, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
No Strangelove Ocean
An important finding was reported last week in the same issue of Science as the new studies of Ardipithecus, and unfortunately, overshadowed by the news of the 4-million-year-old hominid. This finding may turn out to be even more important because it relates not to the evolution of a single specie...
October 05, 2009 |
By Greg Laden
Picture of the Week—Indonesian Mud Flow
On May 29, 2006, hot mud began to erupt within the city of Sidoarjo, in eastern Java, Indonesia. The mud volcano (also known as the Lapindo mud flow, or Lusi) hasn't stopped since then, spewing thousands of cubic feet of material every day. Nearly 2,000 acres of land have been covered with mud, bur...
August 28, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The End of the World as We Know It
Yes, I'm being a bit melodramatic in the headline, but every time that I read about the bad things that are predicted to happen—or already are happening—due to climate change, I worry. (And if you're about to leave a comment saying that climate change isn't real, please read this post about weather...
August 27, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Death from the Skies!
How will the world end? When Hollywood answers that question, the result is often terrifying but completely unrealistic. But the realms of reality can be even scarier than fiction, as astronomer Phil Plait deftly illustrates in Death from the Skies!, which comes out in paperback this week.Each chap...
August 24, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Typhoon Morakot Reminds Us to Prepare for Hurricanes
The full impact of Typhoon Morakot, which struck Taiwan, China and the Philippines earlier this week, may not be known for days or weeks, but hundreds are missing and dozens are already confirmed dead. Morakot was only a Category 2 storm, far less powerful than storms like Katrina or Andrew that we...
August 12, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
