Earth's Systems
- Physics
Bracing sand sculptures with gravity
Natural sculptures of sandstone withstand strong winds and rains. The reason, a new study concludes: Gravity holds the sand grains together.
- Fossils
Fossil hunting can start as child’s play
Paleontology isn’t just for professionals. You don’t even need to be a teen to sometimes make startling — and scientifically important — contributions.
- Fossils
Explainer: How a fossil forms
Minerals can replace any bone, shell or once-living tissue and also fill in the spaces between these hard parts, birthing a fossil.
- Climate
This umbrella ‘listens’ to rain — for science
Scientists have developed an umbrella that ‘listens’ to falling raindrops. One day, a fleet of such simple rain gauges may help scientists better map weather patterns and changes in Earth’s water supplies.
- Earth
Thirst for water moves and shakes California
Here’s a scary cost to pumping up groundwater to slake the thirst of crops in California’s Central Valley: It may uplift nearby mountains and trigger tiny earthquakes, experts find.
- Math
Teen puts calculus on ice
Jacob Nichols wondered if he could use calculus to find the volume of the icicles building up outside his house. His study earned him a spot at the 2014 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.
- Oceans
Digging a trench to stop a tsunami
Boyd Kane built his own wave tank to study tsunamis and how he might change the seafloor to stop their advance.
- Earth
The quake that shook up geology
North America’s biggest earthquake struck 50 years ago. Here’s what science has learned about Earth since the 1964 Great Alaskan Earthquake.
- Earth
Explainer: Telling a tsunami from a seiche
Waves that hit coastlines with ferocious power, tsunamis are one of the planet’s most devastating forces of nature. And seiches: They’re tsunamis little, but still potentially deadly, cousins.
- Environment
Burning to learn
Fires cause billions of dollars of destruction to homes and forests every year. But not all fires are bad, especially for forests. With a better understanding of fire, scientists can both help people prevent dangerous fires — and identify which ones it would be better to let burn.
- Environment
Explainer: How and why fires burn
A fire’s colorful flame results from a chemical reaction known as combustion.
- Earth
Earthquake-triggered lightning?
An experiment with beads offers support for the claim that a rare type of lightning may accompany some quakes.
