Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

Sep 30, 2010

Secret Behind Formation of Volcanic 'Ring of Fire' Found

A large chunk of Earth's earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in a narrow zone around the Pacific Ocean known as the Ring of Fire. Scientists are only just beginning to understand why this tectonic explosivity is so confined. A new study has uncovered part of the answer for why the...

Sep 30, 2010

What's the Difference Between a Typhoon and a Super-Typhoon?

Super-typhoon Megi made landfall early today (Oct. 18) in the Philippines, where the storm is known as Juan, and its wind speeds placed the storm in the highest classification for hurricanes Category 5. Spanning more than 370 miles (600 kilometers), the mega-storm sustained winds of 178 mph (287 km per...

Sep 30, 2010

Exploring Africa's Cape of Good Hope

Cape Good Hope Album (Image credit: Linda and Dr. Dick Buscher) The Cape of Good Hope is one of the great natural places on Earth. Here at the southern tip of the African continent, two great oceans come together to form a most varied and unique ecological environment. Along with...

Sep 30, 2010

Dust Blows Over Egypt, Libya and the Mediterranean Sea

A few days after dust plumes blew off the coast of Libya, another dust storm spreads over Egypt, Libya and the Mediterranean Sea. NASA's Aqua satellite captured this natural-color image of the dust storm on Oct. 1, 2010. The dust is thickest over central Libya, and thinner, but still discernible...

Sep 30, 2010

Polar Vacation: Tourism with a Conservation Twist

The most exciting moment of the tour came when the boat met a school of blue whales in the Arctic Ocean. We saw at least three blue whales, which are the largest species ever to live on earth, and we watched them in the brilliant midnight sun, which was extremely...

Sep 30, 2010

Gallery: New Species of the Amazon

Amazon Anaconda (Image credit: José Maria Fernández Díaz-Formentí.)Food coma: This enormous anaconda looks like it just enjoyed some lunch. The massive snakes, which can grow to 13 feet (4 meters) or longer, are the first new species of anaconda discovered since 1936. These mainly aquatic boas catch, suffocate, and eat...

Sep 30, 2010

Two Russian Volcanoes Erupt

Russia's Shiveluch Volcano erupted today (Oct. 28), sending an ash plume 25,000 feet (7,600 meters) into the air, which was visible from space. This natural-color satellite image shows the light brown plume rising from Shiveluch and out over the Kamchatkan coast and Kamchatskiy Zaliv (Gulf of Kamchatka) of Russia. Beneath...

Aug 31, 2010

Network of Mics Helps Track Sea Creatures on the Move

Microphones deployed along hundreds of miles of coastline are now tracking thousands of marine animals during their journeys through rivers and in the ocean. For the past eight years, scientists have been tagging nearly 16,000 animals with acoustic transmitters that each broadcast a unique identifier. At the same time, researchers...

Aug 31, 2010

Expedition to the Fossilized Ancestor of the Great Barrier Reef

Shipiodpmaya (Image credit: ECORD/IODP.)It looks like smooth sailing for the Greatship Maya, a research vessel that headed to the waters off the edge of the Great Barrier Reef earlier this year. The large tower in the middle of the ship is the mighty drill the researchers used to retrieve ancient,...

Aug 31, 2010

Yellowstone Detectives Find Underground Column of Molten Rock

A plume of molten rock rising from deep beneath Yellowstone National Park is probably what is fueling the region's volcanic activity, as well as tectonic plate oddities across the Pacific Northwest, new research suggests. Building on a growing body of evidence, Mathias Obrebski of the University of California, Berkeley, and...

Aug 31, 2010

Secret to Continents' Survival May Be Dry Rocks

The key to enduring billions of years of hellish punishment from the crushing, searing conditions found miles underground, if you're a rock, is to get drained of any water that might weaken you, scientists now suggest. The new finding would help explain how the continents keep from being swallowed back...

Aug 31, 2010

What's Synthetic Biology?

Synthetic biology aims to use science and engineering to make or redesign living organisms. Researchers create new genetic codes that do not already exist in nature, even if they base their work on existing genetic sequences. Synthetic biology builds on earlier genetic engineering methods, and has many of the same...

Aug 31, 2010

Igor Strengthens to Major Hurricane as Julia Becomes Newest Tropical Storm

Update, 10:50 a.m. ET Monday, Sept. 13: Hurricane Igor strengthened to a Category 4 hurricane over the weekend and its highest wind speed is just 5 mph (8 kph) shy of reaching Category 5 status, the highest status on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane strength. Igor was joined by Tropical...

Aug 31, 2010

Huge Windstorm Spawns New Classification: 'Super Derecho'

A windstorm that swept across Kansas, Missouri and Illinois in May 2009 was so fierce that it has earned a brand-new name: super derecho. A derecho (from the Spanish adverb for straight) is a long-lived windstorm that forms in a straight line — unlike the swirling winds of a tornado...

Aug 31, 2010

Ocean Cruises Sample Marine Life Near San Francisco

A research cruise left San Francisco Bay this week to collect data on its ocean creatures in an effort to piece together a better picture of how conservation efforts there are working. These cruises help us gather information, which will help better the marine sanctuaries in the area, and better...