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 study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research finds that strong electric fields in thunderclouds can accelerate electrons, creating runaway avalanches that emit X-rays and gamma rays, a process connected to the conditions that lead to lightning initiation.
A magnitude M7.5 earthquake struck Central Sulawesi at 18:02 LT (10:02 UTC) on September 28, 2018, unleashing a locally amplified tsunami, catastrophic liquefaction and slope failures that killed more than 4 300 people.
A study published in Geophysical Journal International on August 28, 2025 finds that a normally persistent 6-year oscillation in Earth’s length-of-day broke down between 2010 and 2014, with a short-lived 4.7-year interval, and that the event is contemporaneous with changes in geomagnetic field behaviour and core-flow models.
High-resolution seismic imaging and shocked mineral evidence confirm that Silverpit Crater beneath the North Sea was formed by an asteroid impact 43–46 million years ago, according to a study published in Nature Communications on September 20, 2025.
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside, published a study in Science on September 25, 2025, showing that Earth’s long-term carbon regulation system can sometimes overcorrect. Their model suggests that warming events may, under certain conditions, tip into ice-age–scale cooling over hundreds of thousands of years.
More than 28 000 earthquakes shook Santorini and neighboring islands between late January and February 2025. At the time, the cause was only speculated, but a new Nature study led by GFZ and GEOMAR shows the swarm resulted from a mid-crustal dike intrusion that linked Santorini and Kolumbo.
A 7 200-year-old cold event, recorded on the Chinese Loess Plateau, triggered a 500-year hiatus in the Dadiwan Culture, according to a study published in Catena on September 19, 2025. Researchers link the event to reduced solar activity, disruptions in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), and weakened monsoons. While the strongest signal for the cooling episode is seen across the Northern Hemisphere, global drivers such as reduced solar irradiance suggest the Southern Hemisphere was likely affected as well, though evidence there is less clear.
Zircon isotopes from Earth’s crust show repeating patterns that align with the Solar System’s movement through the Milky Way’s spiral arms, according to research published in Physical Review Research on September 19, 2025. The findings suggest that comet impacts triggered during spiral-arm crossings may have influenced magmatic processes and continental growth.
Archaeomagnetic data from Iron Age copper slag in southern Jordan revealed the strongest geomagnetic anomaly ever recorded, dating between 1100 and 550 B.C. and showing intensities far above modern values.
Hurricane Maria made landfall near Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, at 10:15 UTC (06:15 LT) on September 20, 2017, leaving 2 975 excess deaths and causing the longest blackout in U.S. history. The storm showed how fragile infrastructure can turn a natural hazard into a mass-casualty disaster. With the grid collapsed for months, hospitals faltered, medicines spoiled, and thousands died not from winds or floods but from the blackout’s cascading effects.
