Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

Dec 31, 2012

China's Extreme Cold Snaps Records

An unusually cold winter across China has some regions hitting their lowest average temperatures in more than 40 years, according to state media reports. The Chinese national meteorological agency said polar fronts caused by global warming are to blame for the frigid air. The freeze is the coldest winter in...

Dec 31, 2012

Lined-Up Sun, Moon Give Rise to 'King Tides'

High tides will be extra high everywhere around the world this week. These so-called king tides are occurring now because the sun and the moon are very near Earth, as meteorologist Dan Satterfield reports on his blog hosted by the American Geophysical Union. Tides are caused by the pull of...

Dec 31, 2012

Best Earth Images of the Week Jan. 11, 2013

Uncommon sight (Image credit: Jersusalem snow image via Shutterstock)An unusual storm brought snow and chaos to the Middle East yesterday (Jan. 10). The weather system dumped 4-6 inches (10-15 centimeters) of snow on Jerusalem Wednesday night (Jan. 9) and yesterday morning, according to Jason Samenow, chief meteorologist with the Washington...

Dec 31, 2012

Pacific Bluefin Tuna in Trouble, Scientists Say

Populations of bluefin tuna in the western Pacific Ocean are down by nearly 97 percent from pre-fishing levels, according to a stock assessment by researchers. We found the Pacific bluefin stock is being overfished, said Steve Teo, a fisheries biologist at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, Calif.,...

Dec 31, 2012

Climate Change Threatens Spectacular Hawaiian Plant

One of Hawaii's iconic plants is again at risk. The striking and rare Haleakalā silversword, found only on the high volcanic slopes of Maui, is on the decline, scientists report today (Jan. 15) in the journal Global Change Biology. First, the plant was nearly killed off by cows and collectors...

Dec 31, 2012

Megadrought Took Long-Lasting Toll on Amazon

During the summer of 2005, a stretch of rainforest in the Amazon nearly double the size of California experienced a severe drought. In an area more than 270,000 square miles (700,000 square kilometers) across, dried-out trees toppled to the ground and leaves and branches withered away, especially among the forest's...

Dec 31, 2012

Energy-Guzzling Cities Changing Weather 1,000 Miles Away

The heat released by everyday activities in energy-guzzling cities is changing the weather in far-away places, scientists report today (Jan. 27). The released heat is changing temperatures in areas more than 1,000 miles away (1609 kilometers). It is warming parts of North America by about 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.6 degrees...

Nov 30, 2014

Rapid Warming Hits Antarctica's Shallow Seas

Ocean waters around Antarctica have warmed steadily for the past 40 years, according to a new study. Some shallow areas have also heated more quickly than others, and waters around Antarctica are growing less salty in some regions, researchers reported today (Dec. 4) in the journal Science. The changes have...

Nov 30, 2014

California's Worst Drought Ever Is 1st Taste of Future

The drought now plaguing California is the worst to parch the central and southern parts of the state in the last 1,200 years, a new study finds. The 2012 to 2014 drought's lack of rain isn't remarkable on its own, according to tree-ring records reported in the study. There have...

Nov 30, 2014

'Magic' Mushrooms in Royal Garden: What Is Fly Agaric?

Hallucinogenic mushrooms are perhaps the last thing you'd expect to find growing in the Queen of England's garden. Yet a type of mushroom called Amanita muscaria — commonly known as fly agaric, or fly amanita — was found growing in the gardens of Buckingham Palace by the producers of a...

Nov 30, 2014

Top 10 Cities That Will See More Storm Outages Revealed

Hurricane Sandy left Lower Manhattan completely dark, eerily bereft of the electricity that keeps New York City buzzing 24 hours a day. Across town, 34,000 people living in the Rockaways, an exposed spit of land that acts as a barrier island, were left without power for weeks when the storm...

Nov 30, 2014

Biggest Cloud-Seeding Experiment Yet Only Sparks More Debate

Meteorologists first conceived of seeding clouds as a way to increase rainfall in 1946, working at General Electric's laboratories in Schenectady, New York. But in the nearly 60 years since then, it has remained unclear whether human attempts to make it snow actually work. Now, the results of the most...

Nov 30, 2014

World's Saltiest Body of Water Seen from Space (Photo)

The world's saltiest body of water, hidden away in a dry Antarctic valley, had its portrait taken earlier this year by a NASA satellite. The image of the Don Juan Pond, a very shallow lake located in the lowest part of Antarctica's Upper Wright Valley, that NASA released today (Dec....

Nov 30, 2014

Hottest Year Ever: 5 Places Where 2014 Temps Really Cooked

Though the official numbers aren't in for December, it's likely that 2014 will go down as the planet's hottest year on record, at least since scientists started keeping tabs on global temperature. Data from three major climate-tracking groups agree: The combined land and ocean surface temperatures hit new highs this...

Oct 31, 2014

'Dark Ice' Speeds Up Melting in Greenland (Photos)

Ribbons of dark ice are exposed on the otherwise white, frozen landscape of Greenland every summer, and researchers think these bands could reveal how climate change will affect the huge island. Climate scientists Johnny Ryan, from Aberystwyth University in the United Kingdom, and Jason Box, from the Geological Survey of...