Sascha Pare

Lake Kivu, one of the African Great Lakes, sits along a tectonic plate boundary called the East African Rift, which is dotted with hot springs that feed carbon dioxide and methane into the water.

A hydrothermal eruption Tuesday (July 23) morning surprised visitors walking among the colorful hot springs in Yellowstone National Park's Biscuit Basin, near the famous Old Faithful geyser.

Researchers have discovered that, unlike other four-legged mammals, hippopotamuses trot at high speeds and become airborne for "quite a large amount of time."

In a global first, scientists working in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the North Pacific Ocean have found that metallic nodules on the seafloor produce their own oxygen, dubbed "dark oxygen."

Coastguards had to tow a 40-foot-long sailboat back to port after two young orcas severely damaged the boat's rudder near Guilvinec in the French region of Brittany.

Scientists consider Last Chance Lake to be an analog for lakes that may have existed on Earth 4 billion years ago and contained the ingredients for early life on our planet.

A coastal taipan named Cyclone recently delivered three times the average amount of venom for its species in one go, setting a new record.

Reports of a daylight fireball and loud booms across New York City and New Jersey suggest a meteor entered the atmosphere above the city and traveled west at 38,000 mph, NASA says.

A string of fur seal attacks on surfers and beachgoers in Cape Town has been linked to an outbreak of rabies, with 11 seals testing positive for the virus so far.

Researchers in Australia spotted a magnificent tree frog with blue skin — the result of a rare genetic mutation called axanthism, which suppresses yellow pigments that usually tint the frogs green.

Dozens of long-finned pilot whales have beached and died on Sanday in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, in the biggest mass stranding the country has seen since 1995.

Norway's photogenic "Dragon's Eye" likely formed around 20,000 years ago, when all of Scandinavia sat beneath an enormous mass of ice called the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet.

New seismic data show that a helium reservoir discovered in February in northern Minnesota is larger than initial estimates indicated, inching the project closer to commercial extraction.

In a breakthrough that could boost de-extinction efforts, scientists have determined the 3D structure of a woolly mammoth's genome from a 52,000-year-old piece of freeze-dried skin.

Scorching temperatures up to 130 degrees Fahrenheit are expected across the U.S. West Coast in the coming days, as a heat dome hovers over the region.

A 77-square-mile seagrass meadow at the bottom of Shark Bay in Western Australia is both Earth's largest plant and largest clone.

During 37 years of operations, the now-closed Argyle mine produced more than 865 million carats (191 tons) of rough diamonds and 90% of the world's pink diamonds.

Geologists set Turkmenistan's Darvaza gas crater ablaze in 1971, thinking the fire would die down within a few weeks, but the pit is still burning 53 years later.

A new study suggests an earthquake of estimated magnitude 7.5 or 8 shook the Indian subcontinent 2,500 years ago, changing the course of the Ganges.

The Voyager I spacecraft went haywire last year, but NASA engineers say they have finally fixed its data transmission systems and are receiving usable signals from all four science instruments.

This stagnant brine pool at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico is so toxic it kills and embalms any crabs and amphipods that are unlucky enough to stumble into it.

Rocks and minerals are closely related, but there are fundamental differences between the two.