ScIence

New satellite measurements are offering valuable tools to study the tectonic rift in one of the most geologically unique spots on the planet. A 35-mile-long rift opened up in the Ethiopian desert in 2005, the result of tectonic plates slowly spreading the continent apart.University of Rochester In one of the hottest places on Earth, along an arid stretch of East Afric

In a colossal event, an iceberg, A-76, half the size of Puerto Rico, has detached from Antarctica’s Ronne Ice Shelf into the Weddell Sea. Captivating satellite images depict its immense size, surpassing the dimensions of Manhattan and earning the title of the world’s largest floating iceberg. A view of the newly calved iceberg named A-76 by scientists, the largest currently afloat in th

NASA gallery reveals how global warming is taking its toll on the planet’s glaciers, lakes and forests The melting of the Muir Glacier in Alaska, 1891 and 2005 (Pic: G.D. Hazard in 1891 and by Bruce F. Molnia in 2005. Courtesy of the Glacier Photograph Collection. Boulder, Colorado, US and the National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology) Over the last century, climate

Ice crystals suspended in the air put on a gorgeous show if you know when and where to look A halo around the sun—like this one over Germany’s Ore Mountains—comes from light shining through airborne ice crystals. Night isn’t the only time to see gorgeous things in the sky. Some of the most awe-invoking heavenly phenomena can only happen during the day, when the sun is s

The National Snow and Ice Data Center reports that Arctic sea ice appears to have reached its seasonal maximum extent on March 22, 2025, 10 days later than the 1981-2010 average. Despite the late peak, it was the lowest maximum extent of the 47-year satellite era, which began in 1979. Sea ice concentration across the Northern Hemisphere on March 22, 2025, ranged from 15 percent (medium

Antarctica’s Blood Red Waterfall Blood Falls seeps from the end of the Taylor Glacier into Lake Bonney. Peter Rejcek, National Science Foundation One of the world's most extreme deserts might be the last place one would expect to find a waterfall, but in Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valley, a five-story fall pours slowly out of the Taylor Glacier into Lake Bonney. And it's not just the idea o

The climate on such a world must be beyond bizarre. (Image credit: MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO) A super-Earth planet that dips in and out of its star's habitable zone has been discovered just 19.7 light-years away. The planet, known as HD 20794d, gets farther out from its star than Mars is from the sun and, on the other end of its orbit, as close as Venus. Each orbit the plan

An entire ecosystem has been discovered nearly 230 meters deep at an area of the seabed recently covered by ice. (ROV SuBastian/Schmidt Ocean Institute) A colossal iceberg the size of Chicago has broken from a floating glacier in Antarctica, and like a retractable roof at a stadium, the drifting structure has opened up a hidden habitat to the elements. Researchers working on a ship in

Earth's history is a roller-coaster of climate fluctuations, of relative warmth giving way to frozen periods of glaciation before rising up again to the more temperate climes we experience today. The Getz Ice Shelf in Antarctica. (Jeremy Harbeck/NASA) What triggers these periods of glaciation – aka Quaternary ice ages, which punctuate the much longer Quaternary glaciation

The Cretaceous is the third and last Period of the Mesozoic Era geological period that lasted from approximately 145 to 66 million years ago. It was a geologic period with a relatively warm climate, culminating in high eustatic ocean levels that formed many shallow inland water bodies. The Earth was without ice, and forests extended to the poles. Oceans and water bodies were inhabited by no