Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Climatology

Emissions from cars and other forms of transportation is one of the many sources of greenhouse gasses.

New Research

Global Emissions Plateaued for Three Consecutive Years. That Doesn’t Mean We Can Relax.

Several recent studies provided a glimmer of hope, but these developments alone won’t halt climate change

Paleontologist Paul Olsen of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory is co-leading a project in Arizona's Petrified Forest National Park to drill deep into rocks dating back more than 200 million years.

Journey to the Center of Earth

Defying Critics, Paleontologist Paul Olsen Looks for Hidden Answers Behind Mass Extinctions

From a childhood spent discovering fossils to tangling over questions of ancient life and death, this scientist constantly pushes the boundaries.

New Research

Climate Change Could Devastate Penguin Populations by Century’s End

Loss of ice and rising sea temperatures could impact 60 percent of the Adelie penguin colonies in Antarctica

Cool Finds

“Water Windfall” Discovered Under California’s Drought-Stricken Central Valley

Though the aquifer could help with the current and future droughts, researchers caution getting too greedy with the resource

Age of Humans

Climate Fight Moves From the Streets to the Courts

Recent actions by both youth and state attorneys are making climate change a legal issue, not just an environmental cause

New Research

The Oldest Species May Win in the Race to Survive Climate Change

It’s survival of the fittest, and the oldest may be the fittest, new study says

Lightning over Lake Maracaimbo, November 2015

New Research

NASA Announces World’s New Lightning Hotspot

The electric capital tops the charts with lightning storms 297 nights per year

A print of Lake Suwa from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji.

Trending Today

Japanese Priests Collected Almost Seven Centuries of Climate Data

Historic records from “citizen scientists” in Japan and Finland give researchers centuries of data on ice conditions

Stalactites hang inside of Australia's Jenolan Caves, each one a record of Earth's past.

Caves Can Now Help Scientists Trace Ancient Wildfires

But the chemical clues for fire add an unexpected snarl for researchers using those same caves to track climate change

An artist's rendering of the sweltering surface of Venus.

New Research

A Giant Planetary Smashup May Have Turned Venus Hot and Hellish

A collision with a large object may have triggered changes deep inside the planet that ultimately affected its atmosphere

Top Nine Ocean Stories That Had Us Talking in 2015

From fossil whales to adorable octopuses, here are some of the marine headliners that caught our attention this year

An artist's concept of NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission at Mars.

New Research

The Sun Stole Part of Mars’ Atmosphere, and NASA Was Watching

Observations from the MAVEN spacecraft should help scientists figure out if and when Mars had the right conditions for life

Cumulus clouds don't literally have silver linings, but their edges are sharper than we thought.

New Research

Holograms Show That Puffy Clouds Have Sharp Edges

A laser-based imaging technique let scientists see what happens to water droplets at the borders of cumulus clouds

Dancing with the flames.

Age of Humans

What the Evolution of Fire Can Teach Us About Climate Change

This Generation Anthropocene podcast looks at the history of fire and the ways the world changed once humans harnessed its power

Waves kicked up by Hurricane Dora pound a beachfront hotel in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1964.

Age of Humans

Tampa and Dubai May Be Due for Extreme “Grey Swan” Hurricanes

A new model combines historical data and physical modeling to find the risks of catastrophic storms in unexpected places

Ash and aerosols pour out of the erupting Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland in 2010.

Anthropocene

Sixth-Century Misery Tied to Not One, But Two, Volcanic Eruptions

The ancient event is just one among hundreds of times volcanoes have affected climate over the past 2,500 years

Anthropocene

Earth’s Oxygen Levels Can Affect Its Climate

Models of past eras show that oxygen can influence global temperature and humidity as its concentration changes

The NOAA ship R/V Roger Revelle collects climate data in the Antarctic in 2008.

Anthropocene

There Is No Global Warming Hiatus After All

Improved data and better analysis methods find no slowdown in the pace of global temperature rise, NOAA scientists report

An astronaut snapped this picture of Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded, in November 2013.

Anthropocene

Warmer Waters Are Making Pacific Typhoons Stronger

Decades of storm data show that tropical cyclones in the Pacific are getting more intense as ocean temperatures rise

Anthropocene

Scientists Discover Sudden Melting in the Antarctic

Warmer waters are eating away at protective ice shelves, letting glaciers flow into the sea

Page 6 of 9