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.
Scientists have found that the toxic DDT barrels dumped off the coast Los Angeles, California, have been leaking alkaline waste into the ocean floor. This has drastically changed the ocean floor environment around the barrels, resulting in the ghostly halos around the barrels and creating conditions similar to deep-sea hydrothermal vents and alkaline hot springs.
Researchers at the Technical University of Munich measured Earth’s axis precession and nutation at the Geodetic Observatory Wettzell, Bavaria, over 250 days, achieving 100 times higher precision than previous methods. The ring laser experiment provided sub-hour resolution and immediate results, marking a major advance over the global VLBI network.
The collapse of Panama’s seasonal wind-driven upwelling cycle between January and April 2025 marked the first observed disruption in over four decades of records, breaking a long-standing physical pattern that supports marine productivity and buffers coastal ecosystems from thermal stress. Patterns like these are tracked because their consistency signals system stability and their collapse may indicate underlying shifts in climate dynamics.
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.
