Abnormally high levels of mercury in Ordovician rocks may imply that a huge surge of volcanism took place at a time when much of the planet’s ocean life vanished.
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Scientists Predict Active Hurricane Season
A combination of warm sea surface temperatures and a weak or absent El Niño may create conditions conducive to tropical storm formation.
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David S. Evans (1936–2016)
Evans, a pioneer of auroral physics, changed the way scientists thought about the aurora and magnetic fields and guided a new generation of researchers.
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Federal Science Funding Drops Sharply in Trump Budget Plan
Congress has shown bipartisan support for Earth and space sciences in the past. Advocates hope it will do so again.
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Unseasonable Weather Entrenches Climate Opinions
Democrats and Republicans double down on their climate change opinions when faced with slightly cooler or warmer weather.
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Mining Ancient Texts Reveals Clues to Space Weather of Yore
Low-latitude sightings of colorful hues in the sky likely to have been auroras indicate powerful geomagnetic storms buffeted Earth when some old chronicles were written, researchers report.
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Plastic Waste Knows No Bounds
Despite the vastness of Earth’s oceans, human plastic pollution overwhelms even remote corners.
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Scientists, Policy Makers Push for Mars Exploration
At a recent forum, Sen. Ted Cruz also announced a Senate hearing to revisit the half-century-old Outer Space Treaty, and he warned about potential military threats to the nation’s satellites.
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Tornado Casualties Depend More on Storm Energy Than Population
National Weather Service data from nearly 900 tornadoes and a principle of economics reveal the relationship between storm energy, population, and casualty count.
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Starlike Brown Dwarf? Not Anymore
Because of a new, surprisingly smaller mass estimate for a much-studied, nearby brown dwarf, astronomers now regard the familiar object as merely planetlike.