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Feb 28, 2013

Microbes Thrive in Deepest Spot on Earth

The deepest oceanic trench on Earth is home to a surprisingly active community of bacteria, suggesting other trenches may be hotspots of microbial life, researchers say. Life in the deep ocean often relies on organic matter snowing down from above. As these particles waft down, their nutrients get degraded by...

Feb 28, 2013

'Lost' Tectonic Plate Found Beneath California

A tectonic plate that disappeared under North America millions of years ago still peeks out in central California and Mexico, new research finds. The Farallon oceanic plate was once nestled between the Pacific and North American plates, which were converging around 200 million years ago at what would become the...

Feb 28, 2013

Best Earth Images of the Week - March 22, 2013

The road less travelled (Image credit: World Land Trust) A camera trap has captured photos of two healthy tigers using a protected corridor in the Kerala province of southwest India this year, evidence that the pathway could help populations of the endangered animals. The first photo shows an adult male...

Feb 28, 2013

Possible Japanese Shrine Fragment Washes Up in Oregon

A curved piece of wood, painted red, removed from a beach in Oregon may be a piece of a shrine set to sea by the 2011 Japanese tsunami. The debris has not yet been confirmed as originating from the tsunami, but the chief public relations officer of the Association of...

Feb 28, 2013

Surprising Depth to Global Warming's Effects

Sarah Purkey is a Ph.D. student in the University of Washington's School of Oceanography. Gregory Johnson is an oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. They contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. The oceans are the flywheel of the climate...

Feb 28, 2013

Best Earth Images of the Month - March 2013

Strange catch (Image credit: Journal of Fish Biology / C. M. Wagner et al) When a fisherman caught a bull shark recently off the Florida Keys, he came across an unlikely surprise: One of the shark's live fetuses had two heads. The fisherman kept the odd specimen, and shared it...

Jan 31, 2013

Hundreds of Slime-Covered Seabirds Wash Ashore, Puzzle Scientists

A mysterious greasy substance has been found on hundreds of seabirds — some dead, others injured — that have been washing up along England's south coast. The birds, mostly guillemots, have been discovered along beaches from Weymouth to Torquay covered in the waxy film; many have very sore legs, according...

Jan 31, 2013

Best Earth Images of the Week Feb. 2, 2013

A new start (Image credit: Edinburgh Zoo)Each year after the breeding season ends, male reindeer shed their impressive, branching antlers that they grow. Lenni, the six-year-old European forest reindeer at Scotland's Highland Wildlife Park, shed quite a set of antlers this year. Lenni's antlers weighed in at a combined 23...

Jan 31, 2013

Salty Antarctic Pond May Hold Clues to Water on Mars

Antarctica's bizarre Don Juan Pond is the saltiest natural body of water on Earth — a distinction that keeps the little lake in a fluid state on an otherwise frozen continent. Now researchers have found new evidence about how the pond gets enough salt to stay wet in such a...

Jan 31, 2013

The 10 Worst Blizzards in US History

The country's harshest storms The Storm of the Century in 1993. (Image credit: NASA.)While weather reporters may use the words historic, epic, significant and record-breaking a little too often these days when they talk about winter storms, the United States has seen some truly monstrous blizzards. By definition, a blizzard...

Jan 31, 2013

Why Does a Guy Use a Wingman When Picking Up Chicks?

The front guy, aka “chick magnet,” always has a wingman at a bar or other night spot. This sidekick appears to offer his services in a selfless manner, helping his friend pick up a girl while he heads home empty handed. Males of other animals, such as one tropical bird,...

Jan 31, 2013

Epic Glacier Collapse Caught on Camera

Amateur photographer Christian Grosso got a surprise recently when he visited a glacier in Argentina's Patagonia region: an enormous ice bridge connected to the glacier ruptured and fell, causing a huge wave in the lake below. Luckily he had his camera to capture the event. And another visitor caught a...

Jan 31, 2013

Plankton Pumping Iron May Impact Climate

This Research in Action article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation. Like humans, phytoplankton (tiny plants that drift on ocean currents) need iron to survive. Normally, though, iron is in short supply in the ocean. But a recent study funded by the National Science Foundation...

Jan 31, 2013

New Source Found For Cold, Deep Antarctic Currents

With help from seals, scientists have discovered a new source for the coldest, deepest water in the ocean. Instruments glued to seals' heads tracked Antarctic Bottom Water flowing down deep canyons off Cape Darnley in East Antarctica. The spot was an unexpected font of the bottom water — cold, dense,...

Jan 31, 2013

'Sunglint' Silhouettes Northeast Coast in Astronaut Photo

The coast of the northeast United States is silhouetted against the shimmering water of Cape Cod Bay and Long Island Sound in a new photo captured by astronauts on the International Space Station. The phenomenon of light from a setting sun reflecting off water to create a shining, mirrorlike surface...