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Earth Science

Connecticut Passes GMO Labeling Law

Here’s Antarctica as we know it today, a land of vast ice sheets.

Here’s What Antarctica Looks Like Under All The Ice

Antarctica is covered in miles of ice. But what does it look like underneath?

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The Killer El Reno Tornado Was the Widest Tornado Ever

The El Reno tornado that hit the Oklahoma City suburb last Friday was the widest tornado ever seen

Water may have come to earth by way of comets and asteroids.

Ask Smithsonian 2017

How Did Water Come to Earth?

It took an out-of-this-world arrival to get that perfect chemical combination for water to fill our planet

Global sea levels were as much as 400 feet lower than today.

Never Heard of Doggerland? Blame Climate Change From Millennia Ago

Rising waters have forced populations to relocate since the dawn of early man

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New Zealand Is in the Midst of a Five-Month-Long Earthquake

It’s a magnitude 7 earthquake, and it’s been rocking New Zealand’s capital since January

The Clovis people were known for their distinctive stone arrowheads.

How Two Retirees’ Amateur Archaeology Helped Throw Our View of Human History Into Turmoil

Through decades of excavation near their cottage Anton and Maria Chobot unearthed artifacts of the Clovis people

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Plants Frozen Under a Glacier for 400 Years Can Come Back to Life

Long-buried mosses recently exposed in the wake of a Canadian glacier’s retreat are sprouting new growth, a study shows

Here’s How the Enhanced Fujita Scale Works, and This Is What It Looks Like

The Moore, Oklahoma tornado was upgraded to an EF-5 storm

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Save the Amazon, Increase Malaria

People in Brazil living close to forests are 25 times more likely to catch malaria than those living near places where all the trees have been cut down

A map of tornado activity in the U.S., 1950 to 2011

How to Understand the Scale of the Oklahoma Tornado

In terms of size, speed and staying power the Oklahoma tornado was a force of nature

Lola Fatoyinbo-Agueh — NASA Earth Scientist

“Future Is Here” Featured Speaker

For the first time in human history the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has reached 400 parts per million.

A Friendly Reminder From Pretty Much Every Climate Scientist in the World: Climate Change Is Real

Yes, climate change is real. Yes, we are causing it.

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Water Cut Off From the World for Billions of Years Is Bubbling From the Bottom of a Mine

1.5 miles down at the base of a Canadian mine life may have thrived

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Scientists Are Finding Clues to the Next Mega-Earthquake in One That Hit the West Coast in 1700

Researchers now know details of how the infamous earthquake of 1700 struck the West Coast

Climate Change Is Making the Whole Planet Tip

Climate change isn’t just making the North Pole warmer, it’s actually changing where the North Pole is located

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Watch Out: This Year’s Fire Season Will Be Another Bad One for the West

A warm, dry winter has set the stage for another bad year of forest fires in the western U.S.

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The World According to Twitter, in Maps

A new geographic analysis of millions of tweets provides a remarkably broad view of humanity, by language, location and other factors

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The Water On the Moon Probably Came From Earth

New isotopic analysis of hydrogen in Apollo-era Moon rocks shows that the water locked inside them hails from our planet

Could Lightning Come From Space?

Cosmic rays may cause a “runaway breakdown” of electrons when they collide with highly charged particles in thunderclouds

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