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.
Researchers have identified satellite-detected magnetic anomalies up to eight days before the M7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, 2025, according to a study published in Scientific Reports on October 22, 2025.
A new Nature study reveals a massive, melt-rich magma body beneath Mayotte at 23 ±1 km (14 ±0.6 miles) below sea level, estimated to hold over 200 km³ (48 miles³) of material containing 22–42% melt. This reservoir is possibly connected to the system that fed the large submarine eruption of Fani Maoré in 2018–2019.
Between about 9 000 and 7 000 years ago, global sea level climbed roughly 14 meters (46 feet), mostly from the collapse of North American ice sheets, according to new research in Nature Geoscience by Udita Mukherjee and colleagues.
A new study from Utrecht University reveals that even in regions far from tectonic plate boundaries, dormant faults can still produce earthquakes. The research, published on October 15, 2025 in Nature Communications, explains how faults that have remained inactive for millions of years slowly “heal,” building up strength that is eventually released as a single induced earthquake.
An M7.7 earthquake struck Myanmar on March 28, 2025, rupturing between 475–530 km (295–329 miles) of the Sagaing Fault, where a UCLA-led team found that the southern branch reached sustained supershear speeds approaching 5 km/s (3.1 miles/s).
Fragmented aurora-like emissions and picket fence structures were simultaneously observed over northern Scandinavia during a geomagnetic storm on January 1, 2025, marking the first recorded coexistence of these two rare phenomena within auroral latitudes. The discovery adds to the growing understanding that Earth’s upper atmosphere is far more dynamic than once thought, with electric-field structures that can stretch over thousands of kilometres but reorganize in seconds.
An intense earthquake swarm shook the Santorini–Amorgos region of Greece beginning on January 27, 2025, lasting about 45 days and producing more than 16 000 tremors between 5–15 km (3–9 miles) below the seafloor. A joint seismological study has revealed that the 2025 Santorini crisis was not a typical tectonic swarm. It was the signature of magma moving through a hidden corridor connecting the Santorini and Kolumbo volcanoes, two of the most active systems in the eastern Mediterranean.
A new study published recently in Geosphere finds that some of the largest earthquakes along the Cascadia subduction zone may have triggered nearly simultaneous ruptures on California’s San Andreas fault. The discovery suggests that the “really big one” in the Pacific Northwest could cascade southward, affecting much of the U.S. West Coast in a single sequence.
A solidified magma body formed about 15 million years ago beneath Japan’s Noto Peninsula may have intensified the M7.6 earthquake that struck the region at 16:10 JST (07:10 UTC) on January 1, 2024, according to a Science Advances study by Tohoku University. The ancient magma appears to have trapped stress below the crust until its failure triggered one of Japan’s strongest inland quakes in decades.
A new study in Geophysical Research Letters published on October 21, 2025, shows that most shear wave splitting in Alaska’s subduction zone originates inside the sinking slab itself, overturning the long-held view that mantle flow is the main cause.
