Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

Mar 16, 2022

Magnitude-7.3 earthquake strikes Fukushima, tsunami warning issued

A tsunami warning has been issued for Fukushima after a powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck the east coast of Japan, according to Japanese government officials. In a translated announcement, the Japan Meteorological Agency said the quake hit 36 miles (60 kilometers) below the sea at roughly 11.30 p.m. local time on...

Oct 18, 2022

Powerful 8.1-magnitude earthquake off New Zealand triggers tsunami warnings

A tsunami warning has been issued for parts of New Zealand, with some residents being told to evacuate, after a strong earthquake struck off the country's coast on Friday (March 5), according to news reports. The powerful 8.1-magnitude earthquake occurred at 8:28 a.m. local time near New Zealand's Kermadec Islands,...

Apr 28, 2023

1st mega-tsunami on record since antiquity was triggered by Tonga volcanic eruption

The Tonga underwater volcanic eruption rivaled the strength of the largest U.S. nuclear bomb and produced a mega-tsunami nearly the height of a 30-story skyscraper, a recent study finds. On Jan. 15, 2022, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai submarine volcano — a large, cone-shaped mountain located near the islands of the...

Dec 11, 2023

Tsunamis up to 90 feet high smash into New Zealand every 580 years, study finds

Tsunami waves 92 feet (28 meters) high could hit parts of New Zealand in a worst-case earthquake scenario, research finds. In the study, researchers used a new method of examining simulated earthquakes to understand possible tsunami risks to New Zealand's North and South Islands. They found that the largest waves...

Oct 29, 2020

Arctic sea ice goes through 'historic' loss in 2020

Arctic sea ice has been in decline for a while now, but 2020 is turning out to be — by far — one of the worst years ever. Every year, like clockwork, the northern ice cap, or sea ice, shrinks in the spring and summer — reaching its minimum extent...

Nov 17, 2020

Mysterious 'dark river' may flow hundreds of miles beneath Greenland

A giant underground river fed by melting ice could be running in a state of perpetual darkness far below the surface of Greenland, according to new research. Nicknamed the 'Dark River', this hypothetical waterway – if it truly exists, that is – may stretch for 1,000 kilometers (620 miles), flowing...

Nov 18, 2020

Ancient fragment of the Pacific Ocean found buried 400 miles below China

Scientists have identified an old piece of the Pacific Ocean – the ancient remains of its long-ago seabed – extending hundreds of miles underneath China, as it is pulled downward into Earth's mantle transition zone. This rocky slab that used to line the bottom of the Pacific is a relic...

Dec 16, 2020

Red Sea oil tanker 4 times as big as Exxon Valdez could spill any day now

A mammoth oil tanker is decaying into the Red Sea, threatening the water supply of millions of people and the world's most resilient coral reef. Known as the Safer, the vessel is 1,188 feet (362 meters) long and holds 1 million barrels (42 million gallons or 159 million liters) of...

Dec 30, 2020

US rivers are changing from blue to yellow and green, satellite images show

A third of U.S. rivers have significantly changed color over the last 36 years, turning from blue to yellow and green, striking new images reveal. Researchers analyzed 235,000 satellite images — taken over a 34-year period between 1984 and 2018 — from NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Landsat...

Jan 28, 2021

The Atlantic Ocean is widening. Here’s why.

The Atlantic Ocean is getting wider, shoving the Americas to one side and Europe and Africa to the other. But it’s not known exactly how. A new study suggests that deep beneath the Earth’s crust, in a layer called the mantle, sizzling-hot rocks are rising up and pushing on tectonic...

Feb 3, 2021

Arctic Ocean was once a tub of fresh water covered with a half-mile of ice

The Arctic Ocean was once a pool of fresh water capped with an ice shelf half as thick as the Grand Canyon is deep. If that's hard to envision, don't despair. Scientists were surprised at the discovery, published Wednesday (Feb. 3) in the journal Nature, as well. The trick to...

Feb 4, 2021

'Pile of rope' on a Texas beach is a weird, real-life sea creature

A tangled mass of what looked like discarded yellow rope recently washed up on a beach in Texas. But this peculiar knotty pile wasn't garbage. It was a colorful sea whip — a type of soft, flexible coral. Rebekah Claussen, a National Park Service (NPS) guide at the Padre Island...

Feb 26, 2021

Pirate attacks linked to destructive fishing

Pirates attack more often in waters where illegal and destructive techniques are being used to catch fish, a new study finds. Destructive fishing practices carried out by industrial fleets and illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing can wreck local ecosystems and reduce the catches of small-scale fishers. As a result,...

Mar 12, 2021

Traces of ancient magma ocean found in Greenland

Rocks collected in Greenland may hold traces of an ancient magma ocean that bubbled over much of Earth's surface soon after the planet's birth, a new study finds. Scientists gathered the rocks from the Isua supracrustal belt, a region in southwest Greenland where the exposed rocks are between 3.7 billion...

Mar 26, 2021

Scientists find deep-sea bacteria that are invisible to the human immune system

Bacteria collected from more than a mile below the surface of the Pacific Ocean may have just blown one of immunology's longest-held assumptions clean out of the water. The bacteria are so alien to humans that our immune cells do not even register that they exist, making them completely invisible...