(Phys.org) —Racetrack Playa is home to an enduring Death Valley mystery. Littered across the surface of this dry lake, also called a "playa," are hundreds of rocks – some weighing as much as 320 kilograms (700 pounds) ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 28, 2014
21
1
Salt deserts are among the most extreme and inhospitable places on the planet and their bizarre and other-worldly polygon-shaped structures attract hundreds of thousands of tourists every year.
Earth Sciences
Feb 27, 2023
0
165
When magma bubbles up toward Earth's surface and meets groundwater, steam pressure builds, sometimes bursting into eruptions that spew currents of hot ash, potentially burning and asphyxiating people and burying nearby cities. ...
Earth Sciences
Dec 1, 2022
0
100
A temperature of 130 degrees Fahrenheit (54.4 degrees Celsius) recorded in California's Death Valley on Sunday by the US National Weather Service could be the hottest ever measured with modern instruments, officials say.
Environment
Aug 17, 2020
0
1239
Plant seeds may strike the casual observer as unspectacular—but they have properties that are nothing short of superpowers. In a dry state they can store their energy for years and then suddenly release it for germination ...
Cell & Microbiology
Dec 27, 2019
0
295
As temperatures rise, desert birds need more water to cool off at the same time as deserts are becoming drier, setting some species up for a severe crash, if not extinction, according to a new study from the University of ...
Ecology
Sep 30, 2019
0
1651
The natural furnace of California's Death Valley was on full broil in July, tentatively setting a world record for hottest month ever.
Environment
Aug 1, 2018
7
656
Atoms are composed of electrons moving around a central nucleus to which they are bound. The electrons can also be torn away via the powerful electric field of a laser, overcoming the confining force of their nucleus. A half-century ...
General Physics
Apr 16, 2018
2
4374
Last week, NASA mission controllers for the Mars rover Curiosity spied a piece of rock outcropping with tiny holes, veins and fractures in the rocks. It's common practice for the science team to assign names to these targets ...
Space Exploration
Dec 10, 2014
0
0
Even in places as seemly well-studied as the national parks of North America, new species are still being discovered. Using ultraviolet light that cause scorpions to fluoresce a ghostly glow, researchers from the University ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 23, 2012
4
0
