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Earth Science

A capture of the map showing how various countries' populations may be affected by sea level rise. For the full experience see the interactive infographic at the

Cool Finds

As Many As 3 Million Americans Could Soon Be Threatened by Sea Level Rise

Across the world, 650 million people could be at risk

An artist's conception of MAVEN in orbit around Mars

Trending Today

Mars Just Got a New Robotic Explorer

NASA’s MAVEN orbiter dropped into orbit last night

The Sahara, the world’s largest non-polar desert, may be at least 7 million years old.

New Research

The Sahara Is Millions of Years Older Than Thought

The great desert was born some 7 million years ago, as remnants of a vast sea called Tethys closed up

Curtains of light weave across the sky over Fairbanks, Alaska, on September 12.

Powerful Solar Flare Paints the Sky With Candy-Colored Auroras

Two back-to-back flares sent clouds of charged particles racing toward Earth, creating auroras that may last through the weekend

New Research

This Map Shows Where All That Carbon Dioxide Is Coming From

Global carbon emissions have an obvious bias

Rescue workers look through the ruins left by the August 3, 2014 earthquake.

New Research

Deadly Chinese Earthquake May Have Been Man-Made

More than 600 people died in the August 3 Yunnan earthquake

New Research

The World’s Carbon Sinks May Be Running Out of Room

The Earth’s biosphere may be absorbing less carbon than it used to

Trending Today

The Keeling Curve Gets a Much-Needed Boost from Google’s Schmidt

The long-running carbon dioxide monitoring program got a $500,000 grant from the Schmidts

Lake Louise, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

New Research

The World Has a Whopping 117 Million Lakes—For Now

A new survey catalogs the world’s (steadily disappearing) lakes

New Research

More Evidence That Arctic Warming Is Behind the Weak Polar Vortex

Scientists lay out how melting sea ice may destabilize the Arctic atmospheric circulation

Cool Finds

Scientists Are Actually Talking About Building Giant Space Lasers to Control the Weather

This is what happens when you refuse to do things the easy way

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New Research

Someone, Somewhere Is Still Emitting A Whole Load of Ozone-Depleting Chemicals

Emissions of carbon tetrachrloride are still 30% of peak emissions

California’s exceptional drought has exposed the bottom of Big Bear Lake.

New Research

California’s Record Drought Is Making Earth’s Surface Rise

Lifting land shows that the U.S. West is now missing some 62 trillion gallons of water

An image taken during field work in the Daan River gorge, Feb. 8, 2010. The large outcrop in the center of the photo disappeared in the space of an hour during a flood in 2012.

New Research

This Gorge Is Living Its Life on Fast-Forward

A quickly carved river gorge may disappear in just a few decades

The full moon is seen near Earth's horizon from the International Space Station.

Earth Is Making the Moon All Warm and Soft on the Inside

A new model boosts the notion that a layer of rock near the moon’s core is squishy and perhaps partially melted

An April earthquake in northern Chile left one highway with a deep crack.

Lingering Stress Hints at the Next Giant Earthquake in Chile

A section of the South American tectonic plate holds the potential for a massive quake in the near future

A fifth of Australia is desert.

New Research

Blame Climate Change for Australia’s 30-Year Long Dry Spell

Human-induced climate change is driving a drop in rainfall across southern Australia

The CAP canal is pictured running past houses and businesses it feeds in Scottsdale, Ariz. The Central Arizona Project is a 336-mile, man-made river of canals that delivers water from the Colorado River basin uphill to service water needs in southern Arizona, including Tucson and Phoenix.

New Research

Don’t Bank on Groundwater to Fight Off Western Drought—It’s Drying Out, Too

Water losses in the west have been dominated by dwindling groundwater supplies

The Bahamian Andros Island, surrounded by the bright blue of Great Bahama Bank.

New Research

Saharan Dust Helped Build the Bahamas

Minerals blown off the Sahara fuel the microbes that undergird the Bahaman ecosystem

The small lakes that dot Russia's Yamal Peninsula were likely formed in the same was as the two strange holes.

Trending Today

That Weird Siberian Hole Has a Twin

Melting permafrost can change the land in really strange—and sometimes dangerous—ways

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