Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

Jan 10, 2023

Utah's Great Salt Lake is on the verge of collapse, and could expose millions to arsenic laced dust

Utah's Great Salt Lake, the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere, could be set to disappear within the next five years, exposing millions of people to the toxic dust trapped in the drying lake bed, according to scientists. The urgent warning, issued in a Jan. 4 report by a...

Feb 21, 2023

Sea dragon dad glues his brood to his tail for safekeeping, stunning image shows

A gorgeous new image shows a common sea dragon dad drifting through a seagrass meadow with his jewel-like egg clutch in tow. The image took the top spot in the Compact Behavior category of the Underwater Photography Guide's 2022 Ocean Art contest. Common sea dragons (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus) typically live at...

Mar 11, 2023

How deep is the Mariana Trench?

The deepest part of the ocean is found in the crescent-shaped Mariana Trench, located in the western Pacific Ocean. But what is the deepest point of the Mariana Trench? The Mariana Trench is about 1,580 miles (2,550 kilometers) long and located to the east of the Mariana Islands, which give...

Mar 14, 2023

One of Earth's biggest mass extinctions caused by rising sea levels in eerie echo of today

Depleting oxygen and rising hydrogen sulfide levels in the oceans may have been responsible for one of Earth's most significant mass extinctions more than 350 million years ago, a new study finds. The changes were likely driven by rising sea levels and have some spooky parallels to conditions seen today....

Mar 24, 2023

Heat waves are hitting the deep ocean floor, with potentially catastrophic results

Heat waves are happening at the bottom of the ocean, a new study finds. And these so-called bottom marine heat waves can be devastating because they last longer than surface heat waves and affect many key species, such as lobster and cod. It's long been known that spikes in surface...

Apr 27, 2023

'Mind boggling' array of 19,000 undersea volcanoes discovered with high-resolution radar satellites

High-definition radar satellites have revealed more than 19,000 undersea volcanoes around our planet, providing scientists with the most comprehensive catalog of seamounts ever created. The new compendium, which was published April 6 in the journal Earth and Space Science, could provide a better understanding of ocean currents, plate tectonics and...

May 11, 2023

Mysterious 'sea swirls' off Poland's coast have a surprising explanation

Scientists have finally identified the surprising origin of bizarre ocean slicks that appear to swirl around the surface of the Baltic Sea — tree pollen. The mysterious slicks are most prominently visible in a color-corrected satellite image captured off the coast of Gdansk in Poland on May 16, 2018, but...

May 12, 2023

Significant El Niño event is almost guaranteed this year, experts warn. And it could be a big one.

The chance of the ocean-warming event known as El Niño hitting this year is now over 90%. It will likely begin in the coming months, and there is a good chance it will persist into 2024 and have a widespread impact, experts have warned. El Niño, which means the little...

May 12, 2023

Super salty water leaking from the Indian Ocean may have helped end the last ice age

Extremely salty water flooding into the Atlantic Ocean from the Indian Ocean may have contributed to the end of the last ice age 15,000 years ago, researchers have found. Propelled by a change in winds and currents towards the end of the Pleistocene epoch (2.6 million to 11,700 years ago),...

May 16, 2023

NASA spots sign of El Niño from space: 'If it's a big one, the globe will see record warming'

NASA has identified early signs of El Niño from space, after one of its satellites spotted warm water in the Pacific Ocean moving eastward toward the west coast of South America in March and April. Data from the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite, which monitors sea levels, showed Kelvin waves moving...

May 25, 2023

More than 5,000 new species found in 'pristine' deep-sea wilderness. But they could soon be wiped out.

More than 5,000 undescribed animal species have been discovered in the depths of a massive pristine wilderness in the Pacific Ocean, a new study shows. But researchers warn they could soon be wiped out by deep-sea mining. The Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) is a fracture zone — a large scar of...

Jun 7, 2023

How many oceans are there?

Water covers more than 70% of our planet, and 96.5% of that water is held in the ocean. Or should that be oceans? Turns out, experts can't quite agree on how many oceans Earth actually has. Technically, there is just one global ocean as all of the marine environment is...

Jun 9, 2023

El Niño is officially here, scientists say

After months of anticipation, the ocean-warming event known as El Niño is officially here and could last until 2024, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced Thursday (June 8). El Niño events usually occur every two to seven years and are characterized by warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures...

Jun 10, 2023

Meet 'Dr. Deep Sea,' the scientist who broke the record for the longest time living underwater

A scientist who spent a record-breaking 100 consecutive days living in a seafloor habitat has just resurfaced. Last month, while he was still underwater, Live Science got the chance to chat with him about this unique experience and the initial scientific findings of his mission. Joseph Dituri, a 55-year-old biomedical...

Jun 21, 2023

Missing Titanic submersible: Banging sounds heard in search for lost sub Titan

Banging sounds coming at 30-minute intervals have been heard in the search for the missing Titanic-tourism submersible, according to Rolling Stone, which cited an internal email update sent by the Department of Homeland Security's National Operations Center. The detection of sounds was announced by the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Northeast...