The Watchers team and our contributors bring the latest on extreme weather, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, space weather, and all things science. We're all about making sense of the natural world and keeping you informed on what’s happening. Got a tip or a question? Hit us up using the form at newstips!
A decade-long scientific debate about what’s causing the thinning of one of Antarctica’s largest ice shelves has now been settled, European Geosciences Union (EGU) reports. The Larsen C Ice Shelf – whose neighbours Larsen A and B collapsed in 1995 and
For the first time, satellite mapping of Latin America shows that the continent's agricultural expansion has waned in the wake of the global economic downturn, according to UBC research."Nearly every agricultural region across Latin America slowed down in
The US hasn’t experienced the landfall of a Category 3 hurricane or larger since 2005, when Dennis, Katrina, Rita and Wilma all hit the US coast. According to a new NASA study, a string of nine years without a major hurricane landfall in the US is Iikely to come a
Two experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland, have combined their results and observed a previously unseen subatomic process.As published in the journal Nature this week, a joint analysis by
Researchers led by the University of Southampton have compiled a new database of coastal flooding in the UK over the last 100 years, which they hope will provide crucial information to help prevent future flooding events.The new database is available as web application
The connection between the Sun and the Earth is a complex one, describing a relationship between us and our star that is both life-sustaining as well as life-threatening. This relationship is colloquially known as space weather. Aerospace engineer Ryan McGranaghan takes
The most stupendous feature on Mars is Valles Marineris, the great trench stretching more than 4 800 km (3 000 miles) across the Martian surface.In the 1970’s the engineer Ralph Juergens first proposed that Valles Marineris is the scar left by a giant, interplanet
Curiosity Mars rover recorded this sequence of views of the Sun setting at the close of the mission's 956th Martian day, or sol (April 15, 2015), from the rover's location in Gale Crater. It was the first sunset observed in color by Curiosity. The four images sh
This video shows life and devastation in Nepal 24 – 48 hours after devastatnig earthquake on April 25, 2015. It was produced by Paul Borrud using videos captured by his drone, Phyllis.Borrud flew his drone over each of the villages he visited to deliver food, supplies,
Taming the brutal environment of Mars for future human explorers to survive and thrive there may demand a touch of “ecopoiesis” – the creation of an ecosystem able to support life.The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program is funding cutting-
