Scientists are studying how the Earth–Moon distance has changed over time, and what effect that change might have had on our planet. Future changes will extinguish total solar eclipses entirely.
Earth science
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Framing the Next Decadal Survey for a Warming World
The next decadal survey (DS28) will be framed by a rapidly changing world, and will be critical to consider observational needs of the 2030s-2040s, a world increasingly dominated by climate extremes.
Posted inNews
Mars as a Driver of Deep-Sea Erosion
An analysis of breaks in deep-sea sediment links the geological record to a 2.4-million-year cycle that heats Earth and ventilates our oceans.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
What’s Hot in Iceland? A Close Up View of Hotspot-Ridge Interaction
New seafloor magnetic data help scientists retrace the evolution of the Reykjanes Ridge, lending insights into the effects of a mantle plume on mid-ocean ridge organization and evolution.
Posted inNews
Low-Level Clouds Disappear During a Solar Eclipse
Cumulus clouds rapidly dissipate as the land surface cools, a finding that has implications for Sun-obscuring geoengineering efforts.
Posted inNews
Stone Age Humans Chose Their Rocks with Care
Ancient humans possessed sophisticated knowledge of the properties of the stones they used to make tools.
Posted inScience Updates
Submarine Avalanche Deposits Hold Clues to Past Earthquakes
Scientists are making progress on illuminating how undersea sedimentary deposits called turbidites form and on reconstructing the complex histories they record. But it’s not an easy task.
Posted inNews
Giant Impacts Might Have Triggered Snowball Earth Events
Running into the right space rock at the right time may have been enough to tip Earth into a runaway cold spell.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
A Strong Pacific Plate Bends Under the Hawaiian Volcanic Chain
Two seismic studies reveal the volcanic loads and resulting flexure of the Pacific plate at the Hawaiian Ridge and, surprisingly, show no magmatic underplating.
Posted inNews
A Long-Lost Tropical Island Lies Off Brazil’s Coast
An undersea volcanic plateau in the southwestern Atlantic was a tropical island 45 million years ago.