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 very large and spectacular earthflow happened on April 1, 2015 on the road between Novokuznetsk and Bolshaya Talda, about 280 km ESE of Novosibirsk, Russia and was captured on video.According to The Landslide Blog comment posted by Michal, the event took place at 13:0
A versatile instrument developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and riding on the first spacecraft to ever orbit Mercury is causing researchers to rethink their theories on the planet’s formation.Known as the Gamma-Ray Spectrometer,
A growing community of scientists and independent investigators are exploring the effects of electrical discharges on planetary surfaces. A key figure in this blossoming field is Michael Steinbacher, a professional photographer who has studied the geological formations
In the clouds of Jupiter, scientists have found evidence of a type of atmospheric wave that had long been proposed but had not been identified in images before now.Researchers consider this kind of wave, called a Kelvin wave, a fundamental part of a planetary atmosphere
When a missile or meteor strikes the earth, the havoc above ground is obvious, but the details of what happens below ground are harder to see.Duke University physicists have developed techniques that enable them to simulate high-speed impacts in artificial soil and sand
On Earth, the main discharge channel is experienced as a terrestrial lighting bolt. Slow-motion studies reveal that each flash is a complex episode. Multiple leader strokes descend from the clouds, while similar, less visible potential contacts rise from the ground. Onc
Every day of every year, NASA satellites provide useful data about our home planet, and along the way, some beautiful images as well. This video includes satellite images of Earth in 2014 from NASA and its partners as well as photos and a time lapse video from the Inter
A new color map of dwarf planet Ceres, which NASA's Dawn spacecraft has been orbiting since March 2015, reveals the diversity of the surface of this planetary body. Differences in morphology and color across the surface suggest Ceres was once an active body, Dawn
An international team, including researchers at the University of Liverpool, have shown that south east Iceland is underlain by continental crust.The team found that the accepted theory, that Iceland consists only of very thick oceanic crust, is incorrect. Maps of crust
For nearly three years we have reported on countless discoveries that challenge the foundations of modern cosmology and astrophysics. Today we routinely hear of celestial objects ranging in scale from stars, galaxies and quasar groups that should not exist if the standa
