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.
An international scientific assessment published on December 18, 2025, concludes that the January 15, 2022, eruption of the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai volcano caused the most severe stratospheric disruption ever observed in the satellite era, increasing global stratospheric water vapor by about 10%.
Virginia Tech researchers used Sentinel-1 radar satellites to identify hidden ground movement across U.S. high-hazard dams, revealing potential structural instability and urgent risks to downstream communities.
Scientists have produced the most detailed picture yet of the layer 2 900 km (1 800 miles) beneath Earth’s surface where the mantle meets the core. Using records from more than 5 300 earthquakes, they discovered that ancient tectonic plates sink to this depth, flatten against the core, and slowly spread sideways, driving flows in the planet’s deep interior.
A new seismic study reveals that Bermuda’s uplift is sustained by a 20 km (12 mile) thick layer of buoyant underplated rock, not by a deep mantle plume. The findings, published in Geophysical Research Letters on November 28, 2025, reshape the geological understanding of the Atlantic’s most persistent ocean swell.
Yellowstone smells like sulfur, boils with heat, and vents enormous volumes of gas – yet one of volcanology’s most important signals is missing. The near-absence of sulfur dioxide reveals why Yellowstone’s magma stays deep, quiet, and chemically transformed long before reaching the surface.
An M7.8–M7.9 earthquake struck Haiyuan County, China, at 19:05 local time (LT) on December 16, 1920, killing an estimated 259 000 to 273 400 people and triggering tens of thousands of landslides across the Ningxia–Gansu region.
Lake-effect snow occurs when cold Arctic air flows over unfrozen lake water, triggering intense, localized snowfall as moisture rises and forms narrow but powerful snow bands downwind. The phenomenon is common across the Great Lakes region and parts of northern Japan.
New 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations show that Earth’s magnetic field has, for billions of years, funneled charged atmospheric particles toward the Moon through the planet’s magnetotail, gradually embedding traces of terrestrial gases into lunar soil. The findings, published in Nature Communications Earth and Environment, suggest that the lunar regolith holds a geochemical record of Earth’s evolving atmosphere.
An offshore M7.2 earthquake known as the Grand Banks earthquake or the Laurentian Slope earthquake and sometimes the South Shore Disaster struck south of Newfoundland on November 18, 1929 at 17:02 p.m. local time (LT), . The shaking triggered a massive 200 km³ (48 miles³) submarine slump that ruptured 12 trans-Atlantic cables and generated a tsunami that devastated more than 40 villages on the Burin Peninsula, killing 28 people.
Tectonic earthquakes come from fault slips deep within the crust, while volcanic earthquakes form as magma and gas shift under a volcano. Agencies such as the USGS use signal shape, depth, and frequency to tell them apart, guiding both seismic hazard and eruption forecasting.
