The brief but violent life of monogenetic volcanoes

A new study in the journal Geology is shedding light on the brief but violent lives of maar-diatreme volcanoes, which erupt when magma and water meet in an explosive marriage below the surface of the earth.

Global extinction: Gradual doom is just as bad as abrupt

A painstakingly detailed investigation shows that mass extinctions need not be sudden events. The deadliest mass extinction of all took a long time to kill 90 percent of Earth's marine life, and it killed in stages, according ...

Algeo tracks evidence of 'The Great Dying'

More than 251 million years ago, at the end of the Permian period, Earth almost became a lifeless planet. Around 90 percent of all living species disappeared then, in what scientists have called "The Great Dying."

Did Titan give Saturn its tilt?

Giant planets like Saturn don't just tilt over all by themselves; something has to knock them over, or tug on them gravitationally, to push them off axis. Scientists expect that when new planets are born, they form with almost ...

CO2 reaches its highest level in more than 4 million years

As surely as the rains fall and flowers blossom, the Northern Hemisphere awakens every June to another, less inspiring rite of spring—a new peak level for global atmospheric carbon dioxide. This year, that number is 419 ...

Methane on Mars: A new discovery or just a lot of hot air?

The discovery of life on Mars would get pretty much everyone excited. But the scientists hunting for it would probably be happy no matter what the outcome of their search – whether life turned out to extinct, dormant or ...

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