Plate tectonics has been on the curriculum for a while now. Most people are fairly familiar with the theory; the Earth's crust – or lithosphere – is broken up into different plates which move around on the very hot, viscous substance beneath.This movement is driven
One of the driest places on the planet got a wintry blast this week. The Atacama Desert region in Chile was coated with its heaviest snow cover in nearly two decades, the BBC reported. An estimated 80 centimeters (31.5 inches) piled up in the normally arid
Thousands of Ethiopians in Afar State are facing critical food, water and health gaps almost a month after a volcano erupted in neighbouring Eritrea’s Nabro region, officials say.The volcano started erupting on 12 June, spewing ash over hundreds of kilometres,
A massive dust storm descended on the Phoenix area on Tuesday night, drastically reducing visibility and delaying flights as strong winds toppled trees and caused power outages for thousands of residents in the valley.The towering dust cloud that hit the area had
A strong earthquake magnitude 7.6 struck 163 km (101 miles) East of Raoul Island, Kermadec Island at depth of 20km. The July 6, 2011 Kermadec Islands region earthquake occurred near the Kermadec Trench where the Pacific Plate begins its descent into the mantle beneath
Scientists are now warning that volcanoes in Western Victoria and South Australia are due to erupt. The prediction comes just hours after two earthquakes hit the state this morning.Using new dating techniques, University of Melbourne scientists have found that the
Authorities in Seoul, South Korea, ordered the evacuation of a 39-story office building Tuesday after occupants reported that it shook for about 10 minutes, local media reported.There was no seismic activity reported at the time of the tremors, which began about
An ExxonMobil pipeline that runs under the Yellowstone River near Billings in south-central Montana ruptured and dumped an unknown amount of oil into the waterway, prompting temporary evacuations along the river Saturday morning.Company spokeswoman Pam Malek said the
Mount Soputan in North Sulawesi province of Indonesia erupted around 6:03 am on Sunday, July 3, 2011 (22:03 UTC on Saturday) but people living in the sparsely populated area have not been evacuated for now. The nearest village is eight kilometres away on the western sid
The first scientific results from an ambitious voyage led by a group of graduate students from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego offer a stark view of human pollution and its infiltration of an area of the ocean that has been labeled as the "Great
