Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

Jun 30, 2010

A Geologist's Paradise and Nightmare

Big Bend National Park in southwestern Texas is alternatively known as a geologist's paradise and a geologist's nightmare: Sparse vegetation makes finding and observing the rocks easy, but they document a complicated geologic history extending back 500 million years. Decades of research have enabled geologists to piece together Big Bend's...

Jun 30, 2010

Tropical Biodiversity Explained by Steady Temperatures

The astounding array of species that call the tropics home is the result of the near-constant year-round temperatures found in these areas, a new study suggests. The study, which surveyed insect diversity at a variety of latitudes and points in Earth's history, answers a question that has bugged biologists for...

Jun 30, 2010

Two Iconic African Carnivores Declared Locally Extinct

Cheetahs and African wild dogs have completely disappeared from the northern regions of Cameroon, according to a comprehensive study by the Institute of Environmental Sciences at Leiden University in the Netherlands. Although not yet completely extinct, other large carnivores in the central African country's upper regions don't have a good...

Jun 30, 2010

How does a compass work?

If you're lost in the woods, your best chance of finding your way might be a tiny magnet. A magnet is what makes a compass point north — the small magnetic pin in a compass is suspended so that it can spin freely inside its casing and respond to our...

Jun 30, 2010

Photos: Journey into the Tropical Andes

The Páramo (Image credit: Jesse Lewis) The Páramo comprises a number of neotropical high altitude grassland ecosystems found from Costa Rica to Bolivia. Páramo ecosystems exist only in high elevations (typically over about 16,400 feet, or 5,000 meters), primarily in the upper parts of the Northern Andes Mountains. Colombia alone...

Jun 30, 2010

Icebreaker Ships to Map Arctic Seafloor

The U.S. icebreaker ship Healy is about to set sail on its way to the Arctic, where it will burst through the sea ice in order to map the seafloor below. The map will help set the record straight on how much of the seafloor a country can claim as...

May 31, 2010

Urine Pheromone in Mice Named After Jane Austen Character

In one of the more bizarre homages to Jane Austen, biologists have named a protein in mice urine after her famed character Mr. Darcy from the novel Pride and Prejudice. Much like Mr. Darcy had a magnetic pull on Elizabeth Bennet (and countless readers), the protein is a pheromone responsible...

May 31, 2010

The World's Biggest Oceans and Seas

Intro Marit Jentoft-Nilsen/NASA Water covers more than 70 percent of the Earth's surface, with the largest body of water, the Pacific Ocean, taking up more than one-third of the planet's surface. All of the oceans on Earth are estimated to have a volume of 0.3 billion cubic miles (1.332 billion...

May 31, 2010

New Web Site Launches: OurAmazingPlanet

A half-century ago, two U.S. Navy explorers ventured to the deepest place on Earth, the Mariana Trench, nearly 7 miles below the surface of the Pacific Ocean. Nobody has returned to the abyss since, and most of the oceans remain largely unexplored. So today, World Oceans Day, LiveScience's parent company,...

May 31, 2010

How Hot Is Lava?

Ice melts at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Chocolate melts at 90 F. But rock? Now we're talking a lot more heat. Lava, the melted rock that shoots out of volcanoes, can flow at temperatures of thousands of degrees Fahrenheit. Lava that's on the cooler side comes out of volcanoes at only...

May 31, 2010

Depth of Himalayan Mountain Roots Revealed

An epic collision between two ancient continents pushed the Himalayas up fom the Earth's surface. That much is known, but a new study reveals how deep the unseen wreckage penetrated underground. Sprawling sections of the Earth's crust — the rocky plates floating on the scorching, molten rock inside the Earth,...

May 31, 2010

Earth's Atmospheric Layers Seen from Space

A spectacular new image taken by astronauts on the International Space Station shows the various layers of Earth's atmosphere during sunset over the Indian Ocean. A brilliant sequence of colors in the image denotes each of the layers of Earth's atmosphere, which are visible here because the picture was taken...

May 31, 2010

What Does Poison Ivy Look Like?

The leaves of poison ivy plants consist of three leaflets, and each leaflet has a pointed tip and can be bright or dull green, according to the National Park Service. The leaflets are usually at least an inch and a half (3 centimeters) long. The edges of the leaflets can...

May 31, 2010

This Is Not Mars

This barren, reddish terrain may look like it belongs on Earth's neighbor, but it's no Martian landscape -- it's actually a unique geological feature in Australia. Located in the Northern Territory of Australia, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park hosts some of the world's most spectacular examples of inselbergs, or isolated mountains....

May 31, 2010

Magma Plume Discovered Under Southern Africa

A blob of the Earth's gooey insides linked to volcanic eruptions has been detected below southern Africa. The newly discovered blob is known to geologists as a mid-mantle plume. Mantle plumes are columns of hot, gushy gunk that flow toward the Earth's surface and are a known contributor to volcanic...