Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

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...

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...