Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

Jun 9, 2022

Scientists discover viruses that secretly rule the world's oceans

Thousands of mysterious viruses that were recently discovered lurking in the world's oceans may exert huge influence over the ecosystems, in part by reprogramming the hosts they infect, scientists reported. The new research, published Thursday (June 9) in the journal Science, focuses on viruses that contain RNA, a molecular cousin...

Jul 19, 2022

'Unlucky' creatures that enter rare Red Sea brine pools are immediately stunned to death

Rare deep-sea brine pools discovered in the Red Sea may hold clues to environmental upheavals in the region that span millennia, and could even shed light on the origins of life on Earth, a new study finds. Deep-sea brine pools are extraordinarily salty or hypersaline lakes that form on the...

Jul 22, 2022

Why do seashells sound like the ocean?

If you ever took a trip to the beach as a child, it's possible you will have been encouraged to hold a shell to your ear so you can hear the ocean. But why is it possible to hear sounds resembling the sea inside a shell? Are we somehow listening...

Jul 22, 2022

Why can't we drink saltwater?

Water is essential for our survival, and yet more than 96% of the planet's liquid water is ocean water — and it contains so much salt that it's undrinkable by humans. Salty sea water won't quench your thirst, and drinking too much can even lead to death by dehydration. But...

Jul 22, 2022

Is the Red Sea really red?

Satellite images taken from space show the Red Sea as a blue line running roughly from north to south along the northeastern edge of the African continent. The intense blueness of the water, which stands in stark contrast to the drab brown of the surrounding landscape, belies the sea's famous...

Jul 29, 2022

Strange 'alien' holes discovered on the ocean floor

Explorers have discovered a series of mysterious, perfectly aligned holes punched into the seafloor roughly 1.6 miles (2.6 kilometers) beneath the ocean surface, and they have no idea who or what made them. The strange holes were spotted by the crew of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Okeanos...

Aug 9, 2022

Why are there no bridges over the Amazon River?

The Amazon River is the world's second-longest river and one of the planet's most significant waterways. It contains more fresh water by volume than any other river, is home to the world's largest species of river dolphin, and hosts 100 species of electric fish and up to 60 species of...

Aug 11, 2022

Massive expanse of towering hydrothermal vents discovered deep in the Pacific

Scientists sent underwater robots into the depths of the Pacific, about 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) beneath the surface, and discovered something unexpected: a football field-size expanse of towering hydrothermal vents that cropped up in an area these underwater chimneys haven't typically been seen. The vents, shaped like candelabras, stand roughly...

Aug 13, 2022

What's the largest ocean that ever existed on Earth?

Earth's current largest ocean, the Pacific, blankets more than 30% of the planet's surface, stretching 12,000 miles (19,000 kilometers) at its widest point, between Colombia and the Malay Peninsula, according to the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC UNESCO). But that titanic sea represents only the remnants of the largest...

Aug 21, 2022

Is drinking rainwater safe?

If you stick out your tongue on a rainy day, you might think the drops you've tasted are the same as the water that comes out of your tap. But rainwater actually contains many microscopic ingredients that get filtered out before it is pumped into your home. So is it...

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,...