Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

Sep 15, 2022

Earth's Conveyor Belts Trap Oceans of Water

Water, water, everywhere, even deep inside the Earth. That's the outcome of collisions between the planet's grinding tectonic plates, according to a new study. At subduction zones, where one plate bends deep beneath another, the sinking plate acts like a conveyor belt, carrying more than an ocean's worth of water...

Sep 16, 2022

Stunning 'sunglint' turns the sea's surface into a swirling silver mirror

An astronaut on the International Space Station (ISS) recently snapped a stunning photograph of a sunglint that transformed the sea’s surface into a swirling, silver mirror surrounding a pair of Greek islands. The color-changing phenomenon, caused by the sun's light reflecting off the still sea directly into the astronaut's camera,...

Sep 19, 2022

Underwater 'ocean forests' on the sea bottom cover more area than the Amazon

This article is republished from The Conversation(opens in new tab) under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article(opens in new tab). Amazon, Borneo, Congo, Daintree. We know the names of many of the world’s largest or most famous rainforests. And many of us know about the world’s largest span...

Oct 10, 2022

What are the deepest spots in Earth's oceans?

There are deep realms on our planet that seem almost extraterrestrial. Translucent fish flit back and forth while strange, flower-like crinoids sway in the water. But of all the submarine canyons and trenches out there, what are the deepest, darkest spots in each of the world's five oceans? The deepest...

Oct 12, 2022

Trio of yellow, blue and green lakes in Ethiopia stuns in striking satellite image

A trio of technicolor lakes in Ethiopia, each one a different color from the others, is visible in stunning detail in a satellite image recently released by NASA. The unusual colors are the result of numerous factors, including water chemistry, depth and inhabiting wildlife. The three lakes are Lake Shala,...

Oct 14, 2022

Invisible Plastic Trash Poses Newfound Threat to Sea Life

Waterborne plastic debris too small to see and festooned with pollutants could pose a hitherto unknown toxic hazard to sea life. The oceans are increasingly burdened by visible pollution—garbage—along shorelines and in the open ocean, and also by old fishing nets that entrap and kill marine life. And in recent...

Oct 14, 2022

Plastic in Birds' Stomachs Reveals Ocean's Garbage Problem

Plastic found in the stomachs of dead seabirds suggests the Pacific Ocean off the northwest coast of North America is more polluted than was realized. The birds, called northern fulmars, feed exclusively at sea. Plastic remains in their stomachs for long periods. Researchers have for several decades examined stomach contents...

Oct 14, 2022

Acid Buildup in Oceans Threatens Food Chain

Industrial and auto pollution could turn Earth's oceans so acidic by the end of this century that the entire marine world will be threatened, a new report warns. The study, issued today by the Royal Society in the U.K., documents the rise of carbon dioxide, or C02, which occurs naturally...

Oct 14, 2022

Amazon River 'Breathes' Carbon Dioxide from Rain Forest

Bacteria living in the Amazon River can digest woody materials shed by the surrounding rain forest by turning these pieces of tree bark and stems into carbon dioxide as they are washed down the river, according to a new study. The findings bolster the Amazon basin's reputation as being the...

Oct 14, 2022

Bacterial Banquet: What Ocean Algae Eat

Photosynthesis is the hallmark of the do-it-yourself crowd. Organisms that rely on it need only light, carbon dioxide, and some inorganic nutrients to grow. There are exceptions, of course, such as carnivorous plants that live in low-nutrient habitats. And here's a new one: microscopic algae that eat free-floating bacteria in...

Nov 2, 2022

Golden river of toxic waste from South African mining disaster visible from space

All that glitters is not gold. Sometimes, it's a river of mining waste. A satellite photo taken after a devastating mining disaster in South Africa revealed a golden river of dried mud glimmering on the landscape. But its gleaming shine was caused by a torrent of potentially toxic sludge. On...

Nov 10, 2022

'Spectacular' and bizarre ocean creatures (like stilt-walking fish) found living near deep-sea volcanoes

Fluorescent-eyed fish and ancient volcanic cones are among the amazing discoveries of a new expedition that mapped a section of the Indian Ocean. Researchers recently completed a 35-day expedition around the Cocos Islands, an archipelago southwest of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The islands are now the center of the...

Nov 26, 2022

Where did ocean currents come from?

Flows of water in Earth's seas have guided navigators for centuries and shaped climates for much longer. But how did ocean currents first emerge? These flows would have appeared with the planet's first oceans, around 4 billion to 4.5 billion years ago, spurred by the same forces that propel them...

Dec 9, 2022

Deadly 'rogue wave' smashes into cruise ship near Antarctica — but where did it come from?

A suspected rogue wave recently smashed into a cruise ship sailing from Antarctica to Argentina. The freak event killed one person and injured four others. But where do these freakishly tall waves come from? And is climate change expected to make them more common or extreme? On the night of...

Jan 3, 2023

Bering Land Bridge formed much later than originally thought, study suggests

The Bering Land Bridge, a stretch of land that once connected Asia with North America, came into existence much later than experts previously thought, but humans likely crossed not long after it formed, according to a new study. Researchers reconstructed the sea level history of the Bering Land Bridge from...