Earth and Atmospheric Sciences News

The rocks of Colombia's Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta -- the highest coastal mountain on Earth -- tell a fascinating tale

A major drop in temperature 137 million years ago briefly interrupted the warm, equable climate of the Cretaceous Period. The water temperature in the Arctic Ocean fell from around 13°C to between 4 and 7°C, possibly causing the poles to freeze over

A study presented in Nature Geoscience suggests that changes in solar intensity and volcanic eruptions act as a metronome for temperature variations in the North Atlantic climate

The Greenland and West Antarctic ice caps are melting at half the speed previously predicted, according to analysis of recent satellite data

Earth today is one of the most active planets in the Solar System, and was probably even more so during the early stages of its life

A relatively new type of El Niņo, which has its warmest waters in the central-equatorial Pacific Ocean, rather than in the eastern-equatorial Pacific, is becoming more common and progressively stronger

New research shows that more big earthquakes have hit California's San Andreas Fault in the past several centuries than previously thought

Despite growing awareness of the problem of plastic pollution in the world's oceans, little solid scientific information existed to illustrate the nature and scope of the issue

Scientists have detected a plume of hydrocarbons that is at least 22 miles long and more than 3,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, a residue of the BP Deep-water Horizon oil spill

Scientists from Boston University's Center for Space Physics (CSP) have obtained sub-visual evidence of the onset of a new cycle of solar-terrestrial activity