Becky Oskin

After two centuries of arguing about its origin, geologists have finally confirmed that Hummeln Lake in southern Sweden is an impact crater.

Mysterious flooding and high tides along the East Coast in 2009 and 2010 now have an explanation: a major change in the Atlantic Ocean's wind patterns and warm-water currents.

Microscopic bacteria thrive in seawater at the lowest point on Earth's surface, the Mariana Trench.

An Arctic blast sweeping across the East Coast, from Canada south to Florida, left much of the country blanketed in ice and snow this week.

Hot and humid cities can birth more summer thunderstorms than rural areas in the Southeast.

Clouds are interrupting the natural night cycles of the moon and stars. Because of light pollution, when clouds roll in at night, cities brighten instead of growing darker, researchers find.

Because of light pollution, when clouds roll in at night, cities brighten instead of growing darker, researchers find. Here are photos of the artificial nighttime glow.

Lovely photos of the loneliest parks in the United States.

A staggering 292.8 million visitors toured a national park, seashore or historic site in 2014, topping the previous record of 287.2 million visits set in 1987.

Here are photos of the top 10 most visited spots in 2014 in the National Park Service system.

The world's strongest stuff isn't spider silk; it's limpet teeth.

One of the richest beds of manganese nodules ever found on the Atlantic seafloor was discovered last month while trolling for deep-sea creatures between South America and Africa.

Before this century ends, the Southwest and Central Plains states could shrivel under decades-long megadroughts worse than those that ended the Ancestral Pueblo civilization millennia ago.

Two new studies explain why some regions of the country are rattling more than others as oil and gas production rises.

A massive outpouring of carbon dioxide from the deep ocean helped end the last ice age, scientists report today.

Millions of years before LSD and rock and roll, dinosaurs munched on psychedelic fungus, a new study suggests.

Floods have become more frequent in the central United States in the past 50 years, a new study finds.

Check out amazing rocks from the Alamo impact crater in Nevada.

Evidence provided by pulverized rocks offers the most comprehensive view yet of Alamo crater, the most accessible impact crater in North America.

While the tornado total will climb by 2100, the number of tornadoes will also swing wildly from year to year.

The rise and fall of sea level during the past million years matches up with valleys and ridges on the seafloor, suggesting a link between underwater eruptions and ice ages, two new studies find.

One of the deadliest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history was strengthened by smoke from burning farmlands in Central America, a new study suggests.

Tiny marine fossils that shot to the surface in El Hierro volcano's steaming lava bombs could help unravel the ancestry of the Canary Islands volcanic chain.

During the October 2011 eruption of El Hierro volcano, hundreds of steaming volcanic "bombs" appeared floating on the sea surface about 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) offshore La Restinga village.