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 major hurricane struck Galveston Island, Texas, on September 8, 1900, exactly 125 years ago, producing a catastrophic storm surge and winds that killed an estimated 6 000–12 000 people and destroyed much of the city. In less than 24 hours, Galveston changed from a thriving port city into a flattened landscape of wreckage. It remains the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history.
Variations in lithospheric thickness controlled volcanism across the North Atlantic Igneous Province, from Scotland to Greenland, a study published in Nature Communications on August 22, 2025, shows. Using seismic tomography and a new method called seismic thermography, researchers from the University of Cambridge found that volcanic centers formed where the lithosphere was anomalously thin, allowing plume material to spread laterally over thousands of kilometers. The same structures continue to guide seismicity in Britain and Ireland and coincide with regions of elevated geothermal potential.
Landfalling atmospheric rivers contributed between 21% and 78% of top-decile precipitation events across Colorado between 2000 and 2023, according to a new study by the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes (CW3E) and the National Weather Service (NWS).
Seismic imaging and computer models reveal that oceanic plate delamination is occurring offshore Southwest Iberia, suggesting the early stages of subduction initiation and a potential source of future high-magnitude earthquakes, according to a study published in Nature Geoscience on August 30, 2025.
A research team led by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) mapped more than 6 300 km² (2 400 mi²) of seafloor offshore Kodiak Island, Alaska, in summer 2025, using the NOAA ship Rainier.
The 1935 Labor Day Hurricane made landfall on Long Key, Florida, at approximately 20:40 LT on September 2, producing sustained winds near 295 km/h (185 mph), a central pressure of 892 mb (26.35 inHg), and storm surge over 5.5 meters (18 feet). The storm killed more than 400 people, including hundreds of World War I veterans housed in federal work camps, and obliterated nearly every structure along a 64 km (40 mile) stretch of the Upper Keys between Tavernier and Marathon, where entire communities were reduced to bare slabs by wind and surge.
On September 1, 1859, British astronomer Richard Carrington observed a sudden flash of light erupting from a group of sunspots. Less than 24 hours later, Earth was struck by the most powerful geomagnetic storm in recorded history. Telegraph systems failed, auroras spread across the globe, and the event became known as the Carrington Event.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) released the Cooperative National Geologic Map on August 28, 2025, presenting the most detailed national-scale geologic map of the United States to date.
Scientists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) developed the most accurate 3D model of the internal structure of the Vulcano volcano in northern Sicily, marking a breakthrough in volcanic risk assessment.
Hurricane Katrina, one of the deadliest and costliest hurricanes in U.S. history, devastated the Gulf Coast in August 2005, leaving nearly 2 000 dead and causing over USD 100 billion in damages.
Originating as a tropical depression in the Bahamas on August 23, Katrina rapidly intensified into a Category 5 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. Making landfall in Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi, Katrina unleashed catastrophic storm surge, and flooded 80% of New Orleans causing levee failures, and destructive winds across the Southeast.
The storm exposed critical forecasting limitations of the time and reshaped U.S. disaster preparedness, standing as a benchmark for how hurricanes are tracked, predicted, and remembered.
