Natural Disasters

To escape loud noises, sperm whales have been known to swim to the surface too quickly and give themselves the bends.

Whales Struggled to Find Food After New Zealand’s 2016 Earthquake

Sperm whales are at the top of the food chain, and the effects of undersea landslides rippled up

Researchers monitored the decay of feral pig carcasses to understand what happens to ecosystems where many animals have died at once

To Study Mass Die-Offs, Scientists Dumped 15 Tons of Feral Pig Carcasses Into a Field

The rotting, putrefying bodies flooded with insects, attracted scavengers and devastated local plants and microbes

Untitled image from Restricted Residence

Nearly a Decade After Fukushima, Photos Capture Residents' Bittersweet Return

A new photo series titled “Restricted Residence” features 42 thermal images of locals and their changed landscape

Brush-tailed rock-wallabies are endangered in New South Wales.

Australia’s National Park Staff Is Now Air-Dropping Food to Wallabies

Wallabies often survive the bushfires, but their natural food sources do not

Watch the Spectacular Eruption of One of Mexico’s Most Active Volcanoes

Officials say no one was hurt in the explosion. But over in the Philippines, a brewing eruption in threatens to be more severe

How Haiti’s Devastating Earthquake Prompted a Worldwide Effort to Safeguard Cultural Heritage

To safeguard cultural heritage, a massive Smithsonian-led cultural rescue operation can now be mobilized to help countries recover from disaster

Sweden's 1,200-year-old Rök stone is inscribed with more than 700 runes, some of which may discuss climate change.

Viking Runestone May Trace Its Roots to Fear of Extreme Weather

Sweden’s Rök stone, raised by a father commemorating his recently deceased son, may contain allusions to an impending period of catastrophic cold

The Blue Mountains of Niger. Arable land in the fast-growing country shrank nearly 50 percent per capita from 1996 to 2016.

Photographs From One of the World's Most Troubled, and Least Understood, Regions

A photojournalist journeys to the Sahara-Sahel desert of remote northern Africa to catalogue the state of emergency on the ground

After DART smashes into an asteroid, the Hera spacecraft will analyze the impact.

A Spacecraft Will Follow NASA's Asteroid-Smashing Mission to Measure the Effects of the Impact

The European Space Agency's Hera mission will collect data after NASA's DART mission impacts the asteroid Didymos B

A New Yorker captured this image of a flooded subway entrance on November 20.

How the New York City Subway Is Preparing for Climate Change

“We’re doing this because climate change is real,” the MTA account wrote on Twitter after a local shared a snapshot of a flooded subway entrance

"It was hot, sweaty, exhausting work. But it was also life-changing and inspiring, channeling our love to do something as simple as this: to feed the people," chef José Andrés writes in We Fed an Island, recounting his nonprofit's effort to feed Puerto Ricans after Hurricane Maria.

José Andrés' Generous Helping of Humanity

Braving storms, floods and earthquakes, the renowned chef is forging a new way to feed the needy

Helpers fill sandbags on the tip above the shattered Pantglas Junior School to divert a spring and avert the risk of further landslides at Aberfan, South Wales.

The True Story of the Aberfan Disaster

The 1966 Welsh mining tragedy claimed the lives of 116 children and 28 adults and features heavily in the third season of Netflix's "The Crown"

Two cows photographed in 2017 on Cedar Island. Three cows, not pictured, were found later following Hurricane Dorian.

Three Cows Swept Away by Hurricane Dorian Have Been Found Alive

Officials think the brave bovines swam between four and five miles to the Cape Lookout National Seashore

A general view shows the flooded St. Mark's Square, the Doge's Palace (L), the Lion of St. Mark winged bronze statue and the Venetian lagoon after an exceptional overnight "Alta Acqua" high tide water level, on November 13, 2019 in Venice.

Venice Declares State of Emergency as City Battles Worst Floods in 50 Years

The Italian city’s high-water mark reached 74 inches on Tuesday

Shift supervisor James Quinn walks through a darkened CVS Pharmacy as downtown Sonoma, California, remains without power on Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2019.

Northern California Cuts Power to 700,000 Homes and Businesses in an Effort to Prevent Fires

In an unprecedented move intended to reduce fire risk, power will be purposefully cut in 34 California counties, an outage that may last up to a week

Did a 1964 Earthquake Bring a Dangerous Fungus to the Pacific Northwest?

A new study posits that tsunamis triggered by the Great Alaska Earthquake washed Cryptococcus gattii onto the shore

An artist's depiction of an asteroid impacting the Earth.

What Happened the Day a Giant, Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Hit the Earth

Using rock cores from Chicxulub crater, geologists piece together a new timeline of the destruction that followed impact

The spider species featured in the study is unusually social, living in colonies of several hundred females and exhibiting either aggressive or docile tendencies

Hurricanes Are Making This Spider Species More Aggressive

The new findings have broader implications for understanding extreme weather events’ effects on animal behavior

Climate change-induced heatwaves trigger Arctic wildfires, which then release carbon dioxide and pollutants into the atmosphere

The Arctic Is Experiencing Its Worst Wildfire Season on Record

Arctic infernos released 50 megatons of carbon dioxide—the equivalent of Sweden’s total annual emissions—into the atmosphere in June alone

Polychrome mosaic emblema (panel) showing fish and sea creatures, Pompeii, House of the Geometric Mosaics

From Baked Dormouse to Carbonized Bread, 300 Artifacts Show What Romans Ate

The show features frescoes, preserved fruit, cooking utensils and vessels recovered from Pompeii

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