Seventy-five years ago next week, a massive geomagnetic storm disrupted electrical power, interrupted radio broadcasts, and illuminated the night sky in a World War II battle theater.
Features
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Sargassum Watch Warns of Incoming Seaweed
The Sargassum Watch System processes satellite data and feeds results to a Web portal, giving decision makers timely information on seaweed location and warnings for potential beaching events.
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New Insights into North America’s Midcontinent Rift
The Midcontinent Rift has characteristics of a large igneous province, causing geologists to rethink some long-standing assumptions about how this giant feature formed.
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Global Risks and Research Priorities for Coastal Subsidence
Some of the world's largest cities are sinking faster than the oceans are rising. Humans are part of the problem, but we can also be part of the solution through monitoring and modeling.
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How Biofuels Can Cool Our Climate and Strengthen Our Ecosystems
Critics of biofuels like ethanol argue they are an unsustainable use of land. But with careful management, next-generation grass-based biofuels can net climate savings and improve their ecosystems.
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On the Rocks: The Challenges of Predicting Sea Level Rise
As the loss of West Antarctica's ice sheet threatens to raise sea level and flood the world's coasts, scientists must improve projections by understanding the physics where glaciers meet the ocean.
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Contaminated Sediment and Dam Removals: Problem or Opportunity?
Restoring rivers to their free-flowing state promises a host of environmental benefits, but contaminated sediments may cloud the picture.
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Aurora Painting Pays Tribute to Civil War's End
Frederic Edwin Church's 1865 arctic landscape, Aurora Borealis, is a beautiful depiction of nature. It might also be a memorial reflection on the end of the war.
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Kepler: A Giant Leap for Exoplanet Studies
NASA's low-cost space telescope opened up a universe of possibilities for scientists who scour space in search of planets—and possibly life.
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What Lies Deep in the Mantle Below?
For decades, scientists have probed Earth's remote mantle by analyzing how seismic waves of distant earthquakes pass through it. But we are still challenged by the technique's limitations.