Latest about Planet Earth
Polar vortices and volcanoes undersea
Science news this week Jan. 3, 2025: Our weekly roundup of the latest science in the news, as well as a few fascinating articles to keep you entertained over the weekend.
Tristan da Cunha: The most remote inhabited island on Earth, forged from a supercontinent breakup
Tristan da Cunha is a group of islands in the South Atlantic that formed from the breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana. Today, it's home to a tiny and extremely isolated farming community.
Undersea volcano off Oregon coast could erupt this year, geologists predict
Axial, an undersea volcano off the coast of Oregon is probably going to erupt in 2025.
Polar vortex could bring deadly winter storms and coldest weather in more than a decade to US
An expanding polar vortex is expected to lower temperatures across the eastern half of the U.S., with the potential for record-breaking cold in January.
Massive Antarctic icebergs' split from glaciers may be unrelated to climate change
The first analysis of extreme calving events in Antarctica finds no correlation with climate change, highlighting the significance of common, smaller calving events for ice loss and instability.
'Lake of clouds' appears between volcanic nesting dolls in Russia via rare mirror-like phenomenon
Earth from space A 2023 astronaut photo captured a rare effect, known as sunglint, transforming the surface of one of Russia's deepest lakes into a sea of swirling clouds. The crater lake is sandwiched between a pair of unusual volcanic "nesting dolls" on a Pacific island.
What's the difference between an active, dormant and extinct volcano?
To be considered active, a volcano must have erupted at some point during the Holocene, but dormant and extinct are a little harder to define.
Earth news quiz 2024: Test yourself on this year's biggest stories about our planet
How much do you remember about planet Earth in the news over the last 12 months? Take our quiz to find out!
Sunlight shapes our evolution — and may explain why some people have curly hair
Light helps explains the evolution of our skin color, why some of us have curly hair, and the size of our eyes. And light still shapes us today.
Climate change is the worst. Here's just how bad it got this year.
The big news in Earth science this year was all about climate change, with extreme weather, flooding and drought attributed to warming. Scientists also warned about much worse to come if we don't rein in carbon emissions.
