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Earth Sciences news
Earth's tectonic elevator hauls ancient buried microbes back to the seafloor to revive and spread
In subduction zones, the sites of the world's largest earthquakes, tectonic activity may generate a "pump" that transports long-buried subseafloor microbes back toward the seafloor, according to research presented at the ...
Earth Sciences
13 hours ago
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Taiwan landslide's hidden motion comes into focus as fiber optics track deep slip
Placed within a borehole drilled deep through the layers of a landslide, a fiber optic cable captured tiny, periodic stick-slip events that offer a unique glimpse at the complex movements within the landslide's shear zone.
Earth Sciences
14 hours ago
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Machine learning detects more than 60,000 earthquakes during 2025 Santorini sequence
The seismic crisis that gripped the Greek island of Santorini and its neighbors in 2025 contained more than 60,000 earthquakes, according to a unique machine learning study that identified the earthquakes as they occurred ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 17, 2026
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Indonesia's fire crisis comes into focus as high-resolution satellite maps expose 5.62 million hectares affected
Indonesia experiences massive forest fires as the dry season approaches. They are a major environmental challenge because they damage forests and other land, endanger lives, and disrupt local economies. Using sharp, high-resolution ...
Ocean bottom seismometers could improve earthquake warning times in Pacific Northwest
If there is a magnitude 8 or 9 megathrust earthquake off the coast of the Pacific Northwest, data from ocean bottom seismometers (OBS) could improve earthquake detection times calculated by the ShakeAlert system.
Earth Sciences
Apr 17, 2026
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The Colorado River disappeared from the geological record for 5 million years: Scientists now know where it went
Geologists have solved the mystery of the disappearance from the geological record, millions of years ago, of one of North America's most important waterways: the Colorado River. A paper published in Science shows that the ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 17, 2026
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Surface-draped fiber captured plane's flight details at Nevada airfield
Originally deployed to record re-entry signals of the OSIRIS-REx return capsule, a T-shaped fiber optic cable draped across the ground at a Nevada airfield also captured unique aspects of a Cessna 172's speed and maneuvering.
Earth Sciences
Apr 17, 2026
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Deep earthquakes triggered by the olivine-poirierite transition
Seismicity decreases with depth because elevated confining pressure prevents frictional sliding of faults. However, seismicity tends to increase with depth in the mantle transition zone (depths of 410−600km). It has been ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 16, 2026
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Different interannual co-evolutionary models reveal how East Asia's jet stream and summer monsoon evolve together
The East Asian Subtropical Westerly Jet (EASWJ) and the East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) are two pivotal components of the East Asian monsoon system, shaping the precipitation distribution and climate over East Asia. Whether ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 16, 2026
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Relocating Venice among the options explored to protect the city against sea-level rise
Relocating the city of Venice is among four potential options—including movable barriers, ring dikes and closing the Venetian Lagoon—that could help it adapt to future sea-level rise over the next 200 years, according to ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 16, 2026
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Novel technique drills more detail into ice core records
Glaciers can reveal vast archives of information about Earth's environmental past, but deciphering the origins of the matter within them can be a challenge. Now, using a novel technique that enables researchers to directly ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 16, 2026
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Extensive faults beneath Nevada nuclear lab raise unanswered earthquake risks
The underground laboratory in Nevada where the U.S. conducts nuclear subcritical experiments is riddled with faults. Researchers have not confirmed whether any of these faults are active and could rupture during an earthquake, ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 16, 2026
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LiDAR maps medieval castle terrain and flags landslide-prone slopes in Japan
Researchers at University of Tsukuba have developed a method to differentiate the topography of medieval mountain castles from that of natural ridges using airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data. This method is ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 16, 2026
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Navigating the past with ancient stone compass needles
Magnetic rocks with iron oxide concentrations act as natural chroniclers of Earth's past continental movements. Using small samples of rocks, scientists can isolate magnetic grains that were frozen in orientation as the rock ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 16, 2026
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Massive Atlantic sargassum blooms traced to West Africa
Massive blooms of Sargassum seaweed that have inundated coastlines across the Atlantic since 2011 likely originate off the coast of West Africa—forming years before they are visible and overturning long-standing assumptions ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 16, 2026
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A hidden Oregon basin and a shallower slab sharpen the Cascadia megaquake threat
A new look at the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate beneath the coast of northern Oregon suggests this subducting slab is shallower than previously thought, with impacts on potential peak ground shaking during a Cascadia megathrust ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 16, 2026
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New metric identifies at-risk mangroves before they disappear
Scientists from UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Centro para la Biodiversidad Marina y la Conservación in Mexico have developed a tool that identifies mangrove patches facing the greatest risk of ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 16, 2026
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Microscopic green pigment provides insights into how successive typhoons drive cumulative water and ecosystem changes
A microscopic green pigment can provide major insights into how severe tropical cyclones called typhoons impact water flow and ecosystems. Called chlorophyll a, the pigment is responsible for absorbing light and initiating ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 16, 2026
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Simulations generate thousands of cyclone scenarios to predict extreme flooding in Bay of Bengal
Powerful cyclones can push seawater miles inland, threatening densely populated communities and critical infrastructure built along coastal areas. A combination of exposure and complexity makes the Bay of Bengal in Southeast ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 16, 2026
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Warmer winters and snow drought may threaten western US water by speeding flows
As future shifts in climate lead to more rain and less snow in the western United States, new research finds that water will move faster through a landscape, likely leading to negative impacts on summer water levels and water ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 16, 2026
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More news
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Copper's 'gatekeeper' could unlock cleaner energy future
As polar ice changes, so do the rules governing it
Super magma reservoirs discovered beneath Tuscany
Glaciers may flow into the ocean more quickly than we think
Other news
Flat optics move toward market with 300-per-second metalens production
Antioxidant glutathione discovered to play a key role in proper protein folding
Back-to-back Amazon droughts trigger record forest stress
Glaciers rapidly declining, with extreme losses in 2025
Why treelines don't simply rise with the climate
Volunteers discover rare space weather events using their ears
