Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

Aug 31, 2018

What Is a Drought?

Droughts occur in nearly all types of climate. Of all the weather-related phenomena that can cause severe economic impacts in the United States, droughts come in second only to hurricanes, according to the National Climatic Data Center. But unlike hurricanes, which are easily identified and straightforward to classify in terms...

Jul 31, 2018

News Clip Linked Coal to Climate Change — 106 Years Ago Today

A newspaper clip published Aug. 14, 1912, predicts that coal consumption would produce enough carbon dioxide to warm the climate. (Image credit: Fairfax Media/CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 NZ)A note published in a New Zealand paper 106 years ago today (Aug. 14) predicted the Earth's temperature would rise because of 7 billion...

Jul 31, 2018

California Logged Its Hottest Month Ever, and Things Are Only Going to Get Worse

As wildfires burn huge swaths of California, the month of July blazed through climate records. It was not only the hottest July in California's history, but it was also the state's hottest month ever, according to a new report issued Wednesday (Aug. 15) by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration...

Jul 31, 2018

Helium Was Discovered 150 Years Ago. Here's Why It's So Important

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Watching helium gas lift balloons into the air is a lot of fun – or perhaps a tragedy if that balloon belonged to a small child who let it...

Jul 31, 2018

Hurricane Lane Looms Over Hawaii in These Astronaut and Satellite Photos

The hurricane, which is forecast to begin pummeling the islands later today (Aug. 22), has already prompted the governor of Hawaii to declare a state of emergency, and views from space offer a shocking look at just how daunting the storm is. It was briefly a Category 5 storm but...

Jul 31, 2018

What's Causing Hurricane Lane's Massive Rainfall?

Hawaii got a lot of rain today. It will get more this weekend. Hurricane Lane, the once-Category-4 storm that rapidly declined to a Category-2 as it moved over Hawaii's Big Island today, had as of this morning dumped 31 inches (78 centimeters) of rain on Hakalau Forest Biological Field Station...

Jul 31, 2018

Climate Change Could Drastically Change Ecosystems Around the World

For a preview of what's to come for the Earth's ecosystems, look to the past. In a new study, an international group of researchers analyzed fossil records to track how the planet’s vegetation changed as Earth climbed out of the last ice age thousands of years ago. Then, the scientists...

Jun 30, 2018

Books That Kill: 3 Poisonous Renaissance Manuscripts Discovered in School Library

If you plan on doing lots of summer reading this year, be sure to keep the safety basics in mind: Always keep your page-turning fingers hydrated; never enter an unfamiliar fictional world without a compass; and — most important — watch out for poisonous books. Odd as it may sound,...

Jun 30, 2018

French Farmer Discovered a Rare Mastodon Skull, But Kept It Secret for Years

A French farmer received the surprise of a lifetime when he stumbled upon the enormous skull of a long-extinct Pyrenean mastodon, but he kept it to himself for years, the AFP reported on Thursday (July 12). The small-town farmer, who lives in L'Isle-en-Dodon, France, knew the skull was remarkable and...

Jun 30, 2018

We Are Now Living in a New Geologic Age, Experts Say

We are all in the midst of a new geological age, experts say. This age, dubbed the Meghalayan, began 4,250 years ago when what was probably a planetwide drought struck Earth, according to the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS). The Meghalayan is just one of three newly named ages,...

Jun 30, 2018

Photos: White Sands National Monument

A big place (Image credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)The Desierto de Chihuahua is the largest desert in North America as it covers over 200,000 square miles (517,998 square kilometers) and extends deep into the Central Plateau of Mexico. Its many endemic plant species suggest that the desert just might...

Jun 30, 2018

Gravity Waves Ripple Across Antarctica's Skies, and Researchers Think They Know Why

Seven years ago, a group of researchers detected something strange above Antarctica's skies. Large, mysterious ripples were propagating across Earth's atmosphere. These so-called inertia-gravity waves are oscillations of air formed by the force of Earth's gravity and rotation. These waves aren't uncommon and occur frequently in various parts of Earth's...

Jun 30, 2018

Shocking Global Map Shows the Extent of a Global Heat Wave

Earth is boiling under record-high temperatures. Global heat waves have landed thousands of people in the hospital and fueled massive wildfires in places ranging from Greece to the Arctic Circle. An animation called earth shows just how high worldwide temperatures really are. The animation, designed by computer programmer Cameron Beccario,...

May 31, 2018

The Science Behind Hawaii's Surprising 2018 Volcanic Eruption

Kilauea volcano is spewing lava and belching hazardous gases on Hawaii's Big Island, forcing more than 1,700 people to evacuate their homes. Eruptions aren't anything new on Kilauea. In particular, the Pu'u 'Ō'ō vent, where lava is visible, has erupted almost continuously since January 1983. But the latest eruption took...

May 31, 2018

Corpse of Mysterious Sea Creature Washes Ashore in Namibia

A bizarre-looking, nearly 20-foot-long (6 meters) sea creature washed ashore at Dorob National Park in Namibia last week. When scientists found the body, it was so decomposed that they didn't really know what they were looking at — it could've been a dolphin or a whale, or something else, according...