When an explosion occurred from the underwater Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai volcano on 1/15/2022, the eruption created a tremor within the Earth’s atmosphere that was highly powerful. In addition to launching ash, gas, and water vapor high into the sky, scientists determined that the eruption represented one of the largest volcanic explosions in recent times.But the volcano did something nobody expected.Rather than only emitting climate-warming emissions into the atmosphere, the eruption seemingly...

The world's largest inland body of water is retreating at an alarming speed. From stranded buildings to vanishing habitats, scientists warn the Caspian Sea may be approaching a tipping point.As a child, Iranian environmental journalist Maryam spent much of her time by the Caspian Sea. From her coastal home in the northern city of Rudsar, she witnessed how the water levels would fluctuate, so much so that in the 1990s, flooding along parts of Iran's northern shoreline left some of her relatives h...

An international team led by researchers from the National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN-CSIC) has identified a key mechanism that has shaped Earth's continents over billions of years. This mechanism is the deep re-lamination of subducted continental crust, a process that explains the origin of certain magmas and offers a new perspective on continental evolution from the Archean (between 3.8 and 2.5 billion years ago) to recent times.

The study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, combines numerical geodynamic modeling and high-pressure experiments to unravel how fragments of continental crust can give rise to hybrid magmas that fuel major magmatic events following continental collisions, generating new...

Many of the people who’ve been working for years on climate issues assembled this week in Santa Marta, Colombia for a conference on how to get off fossil fuels. Sponsored by the Colombians and the Dutch, it was an outgrowth of December’s unhappy COP negotiations in Brazil: the fifty or so nations that actually wanted to move decisively past coal, gas and oil scheduled a meeting of their own. By all accounts it was a kinder, gentler version of the regular climate talks, in part because fossil fue...

Mount Etna is like no other volcano on Earth, new research finds. In fact, the volcano may have formed in a bizarre way, reminiscent of how some seamounts, called petit-spot volcanoes, grow on the ocean floor, researchers reported April 7 in the journal JGR Solid Earth. Although these seamounts are tiny —‬ just a few hundred feet tall — Mount Etna towers 11,165 feet (3,403 meters) above sea level."This actually represents a new type of volcanism," Sarah Lambart, a petrologist at the University o...

Editor’s Note: This essay discusses how one of the great threats to the restoration of coral reefs is the legal frameworks governing their conservation. An interesting read on how the blue planet is being choked by red tape

Death Valley and Climate Change
Join PhD field geoscientist Christopher DiLeonardo as he discusses Death Valley's wet past and changing climate.

Editor's note: video courtesy of NASA's archives

We are all connected to and by Earth --- whether it's the trees and plants that give us the oxygen we breathe, the snow-capped mountains that provide the water we drink, or the breathtaking geophysical forces that shape the land beneath our feet. NASA has over 20 satellites measuring the height of oceans and inland water, clouds and precipitation, carbon dioxide and much more. By understanding our changing world, we improve lives and safeguard our future.

https://images.nasa.gov/details-Our%20Planet%20Our%20Home%20An%20Earth%20Day%20Perspective_S

Video Credits:
Producer/Editor: Amy Leniart
Writer: Jim Wilson
Co-Writers: Karen Fox, Amy Leniart, Tylar Greene

When we arrive at the Mangatepōpō Road end to start one of New Zealand’s most beloved dayhikes, the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, the air remains cool, a bracing wind rips across the almost barren, volcanic landscape, and the cloud ceiling hangs so low you can almost reach up and swipe a hand through the fog’s underbelly. But this is New Zealand, where if you’re going to pass on a hike because of a little inclement weather, you’re going to miss out on a lot of hikes...

In times of ever-increasing instagram-fied locales, digital nomad hotspots, and “remote” areas that feel more like Western Europe than wherever the hell they really are, my cravings for a REAL adventure are stronger than ever.

I’m talking about the type of adventure that got me on the road in the first place: raw, gritty, dirtbaggery beauty that reminds me those two fantastical years I spent slumming it around India with just my backpack, a handheld map, and $3000 to my name...