Geoscience
83 articles-
Hear the Wind on Mars
What we can learn from a Martian dust devil—and the sounds of other planets.
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Lost Worlds
A juxtaposition of science and life, in the editor’s note from Print Issue 47.
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The Iceberg Cowboys Who Wrangle the Purest Water on Earth
My journey to meet the people herding frozen leviathans on the maritime frontier.
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The Ecological Catastrophe You’ve Never Heard Of
In 12 minutes, a landslide, tsunami, and flood devastated a valley in Canada.
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The Great Forgetting
Earth is losing its memory.
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How It Feels to Surf the World’s Biggest Wave
Riding Earth’s mighty forces in Nazaré, Portugal.
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Are We Ready for the Next Massive Volcano?
It’s time to get prepared, argues a professor of volcanology.
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Life Helps Make Almost Half of All Minerals on Earth
A new origins-based system for classifying minerals reveals the huge geochemical imprint that life has left on Earth. It could help us identify other worlds with life too.
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Why We Should Explore the Hottest Places in the Ocean
Raquel Negrete-Aranda says studying the ocean’s “plumbing” can tell us a lot about life, both under and above the sea.
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How to Turn Air Pollution into Gleaming Diamonds
To change the status quo of a notoriously destructive industry, Aether found a way to produce a cleaner and more ethical diamond.
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Iceland’s Eruptions Reveal the Hot History of Mars
The new volcanic fissures are more otherworldly than they first appear.
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Cloud-Making Aerosol Could Devastate Polar Sea Ice
An overlooked but powerful driver of cloud formation could accelerate the loss of polar sea ice.
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How Earth’s Climate Changes Naturally (and Why Things Are Different Now)
Earth’s climate has fluctuated through deep time, pushed by these 10 different causes. Here’s how each compares with modern climate change.
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The Supervolcano Under Yellowstone Is Alive and Kicking
Around 10,000 geothermal features in Yellowstone hint at a mysterious hot spot beneath the crust.
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New Earthquake Math Predicts How Destructive They’ll Be
The “pinball” model of a slipping fault line borrows from the mathematics of avalanches.
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Once Upon a Gemstone
Precious stones hold the stories of continents, oceans, and cultures.
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Why We’re Drawn Into Darkness
Author Robert MacFarlane on the awe and horror of subterranean places.
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Why These Researchers Are Drawn to the World’s Edge
The joy and toll of doing remote science.
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The Dam Problem in the West
On a raft trip down the Green River, a writer faces her environmental preconceptions.
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How a Snowflake Turns Into an Avalanche
Meet the avalanche engineers of the Subzero Laboratory.
