The study of Earth’s systems, including its physical structure, natural processes, and interactions between the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. Earth sciences investigate phenomena such as weather, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions to understand our planet’s past, present, and future.
A new analysis of Antarctic ice cores reveals that two volcanoes—Kuwae in Vanuatu and a yet-unidentified Southern Hemisphere volcano—erupted almost simultaneously around 1458–1459 CE, releasing sulfur and ash that triggered one of the coldest decades of the last millennium.
A quiet, trigger-less swelling at Taftan volcano in southeastern Iran has exposed hidden instability within one of the country’s most remote volcanic systems. Using Sentinel-1 satellite InSAR enhanced by a new common-mode filtering method, scientists detected a ten-month summit uplift of about 9 cm (3.5 inches) between July 2023 and May 2024, marking the first confirmed volcanic unrest in the Makran subduction arc, where even long-silent volcanoes can awaken without warning and reveal unmonitored hazards.
Years before the ground shook across eastern Taiwan, the faults beneath Hualien were already in motion. A new study in Nature Communications shows that deep aseismic slip and migrating fluids quietly increased stress by about 30 kilopascals before the April 3, 2024 M7.3 Hualien earthquake, revealing how silent deformation can set the stage for disaster.
Weaker lightning during the early stages of a thunderstorm ignited a deadly wildfire in MuLi County, southwestern China, on March 30, 2019, killing 31 people and reshaping how scientists understand the ignition power of lightning.
Researchers at Penn State and Columbia University have found that Earth’s continents became stable through extreme heat exceeding 900 °C (1 650 °F) in the planet’s lower crust, according to a study published in Nature Geoscience on October 13, 2025.
A study published in Nature Communications on October 6, 2025, by an international team of 36 scientists from five countries led by Prof. Xufeng Zheng of Hainan University reveals that the Antarctic Circumpolar Current once flowed hundreds of kilometers further south and may now be slowly shifting north under natural orbital cycles.
A new study published on September 21, 2025, finds that Earth’s 433-day Chandler Wobble nearly vanished after 2015, and the cause traces back to dramatic air and water mass shifts in 2011 that followed the 2010–11 La Niña.
Scientists have captured the Cascadia subduction zone off Vancouver Island actively tearing apart, according to a study published in Science Advances on September 24, 2025.
Ionospheric disturbances were observed up to two hours before the Mw 7.5 earthquake that struck northern Peru at 10:52 UTC (05:52 LT) on November 28, 2021, according to a new study published in the Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics on September 27, 2025.
Early results from SWERVE show that forecasts in weeks two and three can sometimes detect meaningful signals of heightened severe weather activity. The signals, produced through consensus forecasts that blend multiple models, perform better than climatology alone. Instead of simply repeating seasonal averages, they highlight specific windows when the atmosphere appears more favorable than normal…
