Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

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...

Aug 31, 2010

Skyscraper Storms: 7 Big City Tornadoes

Intro Storm damage from the night of Sept. 16, 2010 in Forest Hills, Queens. A woman was killed nearby when a tree fell on her car. (Image credit: Ker Than, TechMediaNetwork)New York City isn't immune to terrible twisters. A wicked storm tore through town yesterday (Sept. 16) and a National...

Aug 31, 2010

Earth's Measurers Say U.S. Needs More Tools for Task

Call it Mother Earth if you like, but Little Brother might be a more appropriate nickname for our messy, squirmy and unpredictable planet. The shape and orientation of Earth are constantly changing. Sometimes the transformation is dramatic, wrought by violent earthquakes and volcanoes. Sometimes, as with the minute gravitational fidgeting...

Aug 31, 2010

Arabia's Largest Volcano Field

Es Safa is a striking basaltic volcanic field located to the southeast of Damascus, Syria, seen in an image released today. It lies within the larger Harrat Ash Shamah the largest volcanic field on the Arabian tectonic plate . Harrat Ash Shamah parallels the Red Sea and extends from northeastern...

Aug 31, 2010

Three Species of "Extinct" Frogs Rediscovered

A global quest to find several lost species of amphibians has rediscovered three species that have not been seen for decades, conservation groups announced today. The so-called Search for the Lost Frogs , is attempting to find 100 species of amphibians that had been thought extinct, but that scientists believe...

Aug 31, 2010

Earth's Core Covered By Liquid Rock, Experiment Suggests

Oceans of magma may exist deep in the planet's interior, near where the Earth's mantle and core meet, researchers say. Such magma oceans could be relics from the earliest days of the planet, when it might have been almost completely molten. To reach their findings, scientists re-created the kind of...

Aug 31, 2010

New Sea Slug Species Discovered in California

A new species of sea slug, discovered in the tide pools of Carpinteria Reef in California, has just been named for its discoverer. Jeff Goddard, project scientist with the Marine Science Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara was working in the tide pools in 2008 when he discovered...

Aug 31, 2010

The Louder the Reef, the Better Its Health

A noisier coral reef is going to be a healthier reef, a new study finds. Researchers from Exeter University and the University of Bristol's School of Biological Sciences, both in England, found a clear association between overall noise level generated by a reef's denizens and the amount of living coral...

Aug 31, 2010

Swarm of 30,000 Earthquakes Reveals Newfound Volcanic Potential

A swarm of thousands of earthquakes that struck the corner of Saudi Arabia nearest to Egypt in 2009 helped reveal that the area is unexpectedly volcanically active, scientists now report. The seismic readings that researchers managed to collect from these quakes could help predict when volcanoes might erupt in the...

Aug 31, 2010

American Scientists Unsure What Caused Mudslide in Mexico

A mudslide that reportedly killed seven people and buried as many as 300 homes in a rural Mexican village may be linked to the relentless rainfall the region has recently experienced, although American geologists cannot confirm what led to the devastating mudslide. Without going down there and looking at the...

Aug 31, 2010

Hurricane Season Marches on with Tropical Storm Nicole

After a quiet few days in the Atlantic basin and Gulf of Mexico, a newly formed tropical storm is blowing across the Caribbean. Tropical Storm Nicole strengthened from a tropical depression and was upgraded to a tropical storm this morning (Sept. 29) by the National Hurricane Center. Nicole has maximum...

Jul 31, 2010

The Grand Canyon in Pictures

Grand Rainbow (Image credit: National Park Service)Rainbow in the Grand Canyon as seen from near Mather Point on the South Rim. Large Lazy Clouds (Image credit: National Park Service)Panoramic view of the Grand Canyon from Pima Point on the West Rim Drive. Eroded Red Rock (Image credit: National Park Service)Looking...

Jul 31, 2010

How to Anticipate a Possible Aurora

Another way that you can anticipate a possible aurora is to check the latest space weather from the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center. You can check on the latest solar flare activity here. The site is updated every five minutes. Pay particular attention to the red graph. When a spike...