Decade of Swarm satellite data unveils new insights into Earth’s magnetic field and core dynamics

Decade of Swarm satellite data unveils new insights into Earth’s magnetic field and core dynamics

Launched in 2013, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Swarm mission, consisting of three satellites, has provided a decade of invaluable data on Earth’s magnetic field and core dynamics. This data has enabled significant advances in understanding the mechanisms behind the magnetic field’s slow changes, as detailed in a recent ESA-funded project report.

World’s longest recorded earthquake lasted for 32 years

World’s longest recorded earthquake lasted for 32 years

The devastating M8.5 earthquake that shook Sumatra, Indonesia, in 1861 was long believed to be a sudden rupture on a previously quiescent fault. However, new research showed that tectonic plates below the island had been slowly crashing against each other for 32…

Electromagnetic anomalies occurring before large earthquakes

Electromagnetic anomalies occurring before large earthquakes

A new study published in Earth, Planets and Space sheds new light on the electromagnetic anomalies occurring before large earthquakes. The research supports the hypothesis that fault rupture progresses just before an earthquake, and the invading gas is charged and…

Observations reveal lightning as the source of extreme air-cleaning oxidants

Observations reveal lightning as the source of extreme air-cleaning oxidants

Observations from NASA's storm-chasing aircraft DC-8 reveal that lightning can produce extremely high concentrations of two major oxidants that help clear the air and the atmosphere. In May and June 2012, the DC-8 jet flew through the eye of thunderstorms over…

Detecting significant thermal unrest years before volcanic eruption

Detecting significant thermal unrest years before volcanic eruption

Scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the University of Alaska (UA) have developed a new method that may lead to earlier predictions of volcanic eruptions. There are telltale warning signs that a volcano is likely to erupt in the future,…

Peter Mungo Jupp: The Black Death and Cosmic Chaos

Peter Mungo Jupp: The Black Death and Cosmic Chaos

Archaeologist and Thunderbolts colleague Peter Mungo Jupp presents a radical idea that civilization-destroying plagues may be governed by electromagnetism such as cosmic rays. Nature often uses triggers based on hard to pinpoint factors when losing its newest…