https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Earthquakes and the seismic waves they generate provide some of the best clues to Earth's interior. To extend that success to other worlds, scientists placed seismometers on the Apollo missions to the moon and on the Viking Mars landers, which reached Mars in 1976. Though the Apollo detectors proved a resounding success, Viking's results on Mars were less clear: Viking 1's seismometer failed to deploy properly, and Viking 2 recorded only two ambiguous events. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-reexamined-viking-reveals-marsquake-region.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 21 Oct 2026 12:40:06 EDT news711799802 Scientists have long explored the idea of using insects as our agents in the field in places where humans won't fit or survive. Imagine a cockroach in an earthquake zone, able to skitter into the rubble to map out exactly where human chemical signatures can be found, or a grasshopper leaping through a minefield to bring back a map of the bombs based on the vapors it encountered. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-locusts-sensory-nanomaterials-chemicals.html Bio & Medicine Tue, 20 Oct 2026 10:40:07 EDT news711706419 Scientists at Columbia University and Imperial College London have found that the largest canyon system in the solar system is still active and shaping Mars today, billions of years after it first formed. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-giant-canyon-mars-tectonically-today.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 20 Oct 2026 09:20:36 EDT news711705481 A new international study led by Lund University examines what happened to population levels after the Kikai-Akahoya volcanic eruption in prehistoric Japan. The results paint a more complex picture than what had previously been believed. The paper is published in the journal Science Advances. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-earth-worst-volcanic-disasters-affected.html Archaeology Sat, 17 Oct 2026 16:00:01 EDT news711298336 When a massive environmental disaster strikes, do societies simply collapse and disappear? Or do people find a way to adapt, rebuild and recover? https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ancient-volcanic-eruption-resilience-today.html Earth Sciences Sat, 17 Oct 2026 13:00:05 EDT news711298328 The University of Bristol–led study, published in Nature Communications, could help millions of people living in earthquake-prone countries make better-informed decisions about seismic risk, particularly during ongoing periods of increased earthquake activity. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-california-earthquakes-validate-day-seismic.html Earth Sciences Thu, 15 Oct 2026 14:40:01 EDT news711292441 Episodic lava fountaining is a rare volcanic behavior in which repeated, hours-long bursts of molten lava and gas are spewed from volcanic vents, with quiet pauses lasting days to weeks between episodes. These lava fountains have been observed in active volcanoes in places like Hawaii, Iceland and Italy, but researchers still do not fully understand what starts, sustains or stops these individual fountain episodes. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-klauea-summit-scientists-lava-fountain.html Earth Sciences Fri, 09 Oct 2026 12:40:08 EDT news710765919 The discovery of an unexpectedly hot rock beneath Earth's surface is challenging scientists' understanding of how heat is distributed deep inside the planet, with potential implications for how they understand earthquakes, volcanic activity and the movement of carbon through Earth. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-mysterious-papua-guinea-reveals-unexpected.html Earth Sciences Wed, 07 Oct 2026 15:20:01 EDT news710594942 A better understanding of how earthquakes occur and what happens during a rupture is important for assessing seismic risk. Small earthquakes, which are more frequent than large ones, are a tempting data set, but they're hard to study, in large part because their energy is quickly sapped as it travels through Earth. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-pulses-kilometer-borehole-illuminate-seismic.html Earth Sciences Tue, 06 Oct 2026 13:00:01 EDT news710501401 Small, hairy and cheekily charismatic. Those words sprang to mind when I first met a Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) after traversing the maze of wooden slat paths at the conservation center in the dense, humid forests of Malaysian Borneo. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-africa-rhinos-spotlight-indonesia-rhino.html Plants & Animals Tue, 06 Oct 2026 08:20:05 EDT news710488682 The sun had barely risen, but diver Elizaveta Bodrova was already raring to plunge into the cold waters of Lake Issyk-Kul, where the ruins of a once-thriving city have lain submerged for centuries. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-sunken-silk-road-city-reveals.html Archaeology Mon, 05 Oct 2026 02:38:24 EDT news710386670 On July 29, 2025, at 23:24 Universal Time, a long stretch of seafloor off Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula was thrust upward. The magnitude 8.8 earthquake was the largest on Earth since the Tohoku earthquake of 2011, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and within minutes a tsunami was spreading across the Pacific. Warnings went out from Japan to Chile. On Shumshu, in the Kuril Islands, the water splashed up to about 19 meters (62 feet) high. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-kamchatka-tsunami-pacific-ten-hours.html Earth Sciences Thu, 01 Oct 2026 17:20:02 EDT news709910514 In 2025, along parts of Kamchatka's coast in Russia, a magnitude 8.8 earthquake caused a tsunami to surge nearly 20 meters (65 feet) above sea level. Yet across the Pacific, its waves were much smaller than those produced by the region's great 9.0 earthquake in 1952. How could the tsunami climb so high near the source yet have a comparatively modest impact far away? https://phys.org/news/2026-09-kamchatka-giant-earthquake-smaller-tsunami.html Earth Sciences Wed, 30 Sep 2026 08:40:05 EDT news709909032 While not quite a fatal attraction, the gravitational pull of the moon and sun creates tiny stresses on Earth that can trigger events known as slow earthquakes. These are movements along fault lines (fault slips) that release their energy gradually over much longer periods than ordinary quakes. Although they have been observed, exactly how these celestial bodies trigger them has been a relatively tough nut to crack. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-moon-sun-trigger-earthquakes-earth.html Earth Sciences Tue, 29 Sep 2026 14:00:01 EDT news709902367 Extending some 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) along the length of Italy, the Apennine Mountains present a challenging puzzle for geologists. In some places, the mountains are steadily being stretched apart, while in regions just tens of kilometers away, they are squeezing together. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-crust-beneath-italy-apennines-mountains.html Earth Sciences Tue, 29 Sep 2026 09:40:12 EDT news709811036 How are species boundaries maintained in the face of environmental disturbance? This is not only a fundamental question in evolutionary biology but also an increasingly important one as human activities and climate change alter habitats and bring previously separated species into contact. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-japan-tsunami-fish-hybridization-species.html Evolution Sun, 27 Sep 2026 16:00:01 EDT news709555869 When we think of a volcanic eruption, rivers of glowing lava or giant columns of ash come to mind. But beneath Earth's surface, a more complex story is unfolding. Magma deep within volcanoes is more than molten rock. It is a thick mixture of melted rock and solid mineral crystals known as "magma mush". To picture it, imagine a semi-frozen granita: a slushy blend of solid ice crystals suspended in sweet liquid syrup. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-volcanic-crystals-black-tracking-magma.html Earth Sciences Sun, 27 Sep 2026 15:00:01 EDT news709471362 Like tendrils on a vine, lava spreads out from the northern crater of Krasheninnikov, a volcano pair on the Pacific coast of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. On July 30, 2025, an 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck in the nearby ocean, apparently jolting one of the two volcanoes awake. A few days later, for the first time in nearly five centuries, Krasheninnikov started erupting. Since then, the northern volcano has been spilling a steady, eastward-flowing field of molten rock and debris, and the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission has been tracking the changes in the landscape. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-india-satellite-captures-lapse-video.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 24 Sep 2026 19:40:05 EDT news709473121 As Arctic sea ice retreats, new shipping routes, expanding resource development and growing geopolitical competition are transforming one of the world's least-monitored regions. Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory have established one of the first long-term acoustic baselines for the Arctic's underwater soundscape. This work strengthens the detection and interpretation of earthquakes, underwater and nearshore detonations, ship traffic and other events of national security interest. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-scientists-arctic-global.html Earth Sciences Thu, 24 Sep 2026 17:40:05 EDT news709468682 Around 631,000 years ago—a geological blink of an eye—catastrophe unfolded in what is now northwestern Wyoming, U.S. During what is thought to have been a series of immense volcanic eruptions, life within hundreds of kilometers of the blasts was shattered. Ash was dispersed across much of North America, and the effects were felt worldwide. This was a super-eruption of the massive volcanic system located in what is now Yellowstone National Park. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-humanity-blowbyblow-account-yellowstone-supervolcano.html Earth Sciences Mon, 21 Sep 2026 10:40:06 EDT news709205583 Between 2006 and 2017, North Korea conducted six underground nuclear tests at its vast testing site at Mount Mantap in North Hamgyong province. Typically, underground explosions trigger an intense burst of minor earthquakes that die down once testing stops. But geologists have detected far more seismic activity after the final detonation, and it has persisted for years. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-north-korea-nuclear-triggered-hundreds.html Earth Sciences Fri, 18 Sep 2026 17:00:01 EDT news708952587 Explosive volcanic eruptions can be as destructive as they are difficult to predict, launching pyroclasts—the fragments of magma and rock blasted from a volcano—into the air and surrounding areas. These particles can have wide-ranging impacts, as seen during this summer's eruption of Mount Etna in Italy, when ash fell over the nearby city of Catania and closed its international airport for weeks. The size of erupted pyroclasts helps determine how far they travel and the hazards they pose. However, exactly how and where they form has remained poorly understood. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-magma-eruptions-microscopic-evidence.html Earth Sciences Mon, 14 Sep 2026 17:10:02 EDT news708622021 Floods, wildfires, conflicts, earthquakes, economic shocks, hurricanes or epidemics: These unexpected and often dramatic events affect people's lives and jobs, destroy crops, wipe out livestock and stored food, contaminate water, block roads, cut off communities and severely affect access to markets and food. This is a distressing picture—one expected to get much worse in the near future because of climate change and an increasingly polarized world. Yet science says no: These natural and human-made shocks do not have to lead to more hunger by default. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-countries-disasters-food-crises-analysis.html Environment Mon, 14 Sep 2026 15:00:11 EDT news708604742 More than 3,000 scientific article titles across disciplines have made use of Beatles song titles and lyrics, according to a study published in PLOS One by Gabriel Budel of Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and colleagues. This analysis is an unprecedentedly large-scale, cross-disciplinary account of how the Beatles have left their mark on scientific writing. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-beatles-permeated-papers-academic-disciplines.html Social Sciences Wed, 09 Sep 2026 14:00:22 EDT news708077101 We have all seen something suddenly break: a phone screen cracks, a plastic object snaps or a piece of glass shatters. To our eyes, the failure seems to happen all at once. But what if the most important part of the break happens long before the final snap? https://phys.org/news/2026-09-tiny-2d-materials-triggering-sudden.html General Physics Wed, 09 Sep 2026 12:40:02 EDT news708166640 Indonesia's Mount Anak Krakatau has erupted again this week, sending plumes of volcanic ash high into the sky and disrupting hundreds of flights. More than 300,000 passengers have been affected. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-anak-krakatau-erupts-disrupting-disaster.html Earth Sciences Wed, 09 Sep 2026 10:03:16 EDT news708166963 Permafrost refers to permanently frozen ground. The rock is held together by ice, much like cement binds concrete. However, when the ice thaws, the ground becomes weak and unstable. During an earthquake, this can trigger a series of natural hazards. An international research team investigated precisely such an event. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-climate-amplify-impact-earthquakes-arctic.html Earth Sciences Mon, 07 Sep 2026 15:00:07 EDT news707991241 Since scientists can't drill 2,900 km (1,800 miles) to the boundary between Earth's core and deep mantle, they must use information relayed by seismic waves recorded during earthquakes to study this region. In a new study published in the journal JGR Solid Earth, a group of scientists used deep learning to study a large set of a specific type of seismic wave. The analysis revealed six continuous bands of irregularities at the core-mantle boundary (CMB) that had previously appeared only as sparse patches. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-unusual-earth-core-mantle-boundary.html Earth Sciences Sun, 06 Sep 2026 13:00:01 EDT news707652667 UC Riverside scientists have developed a way to identify where Earth's biggest earthquakes are most likely to occur, offering a powerful new tool for improving disaster preparation in some of the most dangerous seismic regions. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-method-massive-earthquakes.html Earth Sciences Sat, 05 Sep 2026 07:00:04 EDT news707807847 Growing up, many of us were taught to drop, cover and hold on during an earthquake. The guidance is straightforward, but how people actually respond when the ground starts shaking can be far more complicated. Now, UC Berkeley researchers are studying what happens in those critical moments and how fear and risk perception influence people's actions. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-panic-people-virtual-quake-capture.html Earth Sciences Thu, 03 Sep 2026 08:40:02 EDT news707643030