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Earth Science

Anthropocene

Five Things The Gulf Oil Spill Has Taught Us About the Ocean

While researching the spill, scientists tracked deep-sea sharks, found new mud dragons, and discovered a type of ocean current

Yum! A candy-colored view of the planet Mercury shows differences in its chemical makeup.

New Research

Earth May Have Become Magnetic After Eating a Mercury-Like Object

Swallowing a sulfur-rich protoplanet could help explain two lingering mysteries in the story of Earth’s formation

A man holds his mobile phone as he sits in the ruins of a house in Minamisanriku, Japan, after the area was devastated by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

Getting a Push Notification on Your Cell Phone? It Could Be Warning You About an Earthquake

Sophisticated GPS sensors in the average mobile device could be harnessed for seismic early warning systems around the world

The 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia left a huge crater, along with a sometimes unexpected legacy.

200 Years After Tambora, Some Unusual Effects Linger

Frankenstein, famine poetry, polar exploration—the “year without a summer” was just the beginning

When young planets collide.

New Research

The Moon Was Formed in a Smashup Between Earth and a Near Twin

But solving one puzzle of lunar origins has raised another linked to the abundances of tungsten in the primordial bodies

Good reads about our home planet.

Anthropocene

Five Must-Read Books About Earth

Geologist Robert M. Hazen selects works spanning genres that offer insights into our planet’s history and inner workings

An artist’s interpretation of an object slamming into the early Earth

New Research

Metal Rain Could Explain Why the Earth Made of Different Stuff Than the Moon

A new study shows that iron-rich asteroids could have vaporized when they hit the early Earth

Dog sled racing is a classic bit of fun in Alaska. But as that state warms, organizers are having to move or cancel races.

Anthropocene

While the U.S. East Shivers, Unusual Heat Stirs Trouble Across the Globe

Cancelled dog-sled races and restless grizzly bears serve as reminders that global warming is still at work

Are QR Codes Safe and Other Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

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Ask Smithsonian: What’s the Deepest Hole Ever Dug?

The answer to the question, says a Smithsonian researcher, is more about why we dig, than how low you can go

An aerial view of the New Zealand coast shows marine terraces lifted up by an earthquake.

Scientists Have Imaged the Base of a Tectonic Plate

The discovery of a slippery layer off the coast of New Zealand could help explain plate movement

A satellite image shows the huge snowstorm that blanketed the northeastern United States this week. The blizzard was an example of how storms are getting less common but more intense.

Anthropocene

Climate Change Is Altering the Global Heat Engine

Thermodynamics help explain why storms will become fewer in number but stronger in intensity as the planet warms

A diverse array of trilobites ruled the seas for almost 300 million years, until they vanished at the end of the Permian period.

Vinegar-Like Acid Rain May Have Fallen During Earth’s Worst Extinction

Vanilla-flavored rocks hint at a planet scoured by intense acid rain during the Great Dying 252 million years ago

An atomic clock at the Physical Technical Federal Institution in Braunschweig, Germany.

Trending Today

2015 Will Be One Second Longer Than 2014

Because the Earth is rotating more slowly than the tick of our atomic clocks, says the International Earth Rotation Service

Volunteers participate in the 2009 Audubon Christmas Bird Count. Now in its 115th year, Audubon touts the event as the largest and longest-running citizen science project in the world.

Top Three Results From a 115-Year-Old Citizen Science Project

The Audubon Christmas Bird Count is touted as the world’s longest running citizen science project—so what has it taught us?

An aerial view of the lower portion of the Colorado River shows the leading edge of the water pulse flow on May 12, before it connected with the sea.

Anthropocene

The Colorado River Delta Turned Green After a Historic Water Pulse

The experimental flow briefly restored the ancient waterway and may have created new habitat for birds

Singer and plastic-clothing designer Pharrell Williams at the "Raw For The Oceans" event at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

The Top 12 Ocean Stories That Made Waves in 2014

The seas served up some compelling headlines this year, from celebrity fashion to solving the mystery of the melting starfish

Earth's layers.

What We Can Learn by Digging Up the Secrets of Earth’s Deep Carbon

Diamond computers and subsurface life are just some of the topics being investigated by scientists in the Deep Carbon Observatory network

A fossilized leaf from the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum sits in the Wyoming snow.

Anthropocene

Ancient Earth Warmed Dramatically After a One-Two Carbon Punch

A period of intense warming 55 million years ago is an even better case study for modern climate change than previously suspected

The town of Portelo, in the shadow of the Pico do Fogo volcano, is now all but gone.

Trending Today

A Volcano on Cape Verde Is Wiping Out Whole Towns

An eruption at the Pico do Fogo volcano has forced 1,200 people to evacuate

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