Good morning, Monterey Bay. This is an uncommonly accurate true natural cast of one of Santa Cruz's most iconic fossil species, Anadara trilineata, Purisima Formation rock layer, Santa Cruz, May 16, 2026, c. 3 million years ago. These rather rare...

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I monitor climate-related data, including the total wildfire area burned in the USA according to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC). Here's the yearly total acres burned since 1983 (the figure for 2026 is year-so-far): The straight-line fi...

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 Disneyland's Matterhorn BobsledsMy next entry in the Geology of Disney are Disneyland's Matterhorn Bobsleds ride. Based on the real Matterhorn peak in the Swiss Alps on the Italian-Switzerland Border, the ride was initially opened in 1959 and is no...

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In our new paper, we explore the potential origins of a rare lunar rock type - granites. Since the return of Moon rocks by the Apollo missions, our ideas of how the different rock types that make up the crust formed have generally held true. How...

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Glacier collapse, not an earthquake, was the direct cause of the disaster that has left thousands missing....

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From Mars' tiny Phobos to NASA's mammoth Vehicle Assembly Building, apparent size depends on where you're looking from....

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Hello Solmaz and thank you so much for chatting with me today! I'm so happy you are launching this blog series and I'd love to learn more about this initiative. What inspired you to design and teach a dedicated course on "Communicating Uncertainty in Science" at the University of Tübingen this summer?

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You are observing the construction of a bridge that will be initiated on the two banks of a river simultaneously, in such a way that the works will eventually meet in the middle of the river. You wonder, how do they make sure that the construction on the two sides will stay aligned with the millimeter precision that this project requires? You are aware of previous constructions where small miscalculations led to embarrassing results, such as the Laufenburg bridge between Germany and Switzerland (2003) [1] or the Gokhale Bridge in Andheri, Mumbai (India, 2024) [2]. In your case, you fully trust the construction team's skills and are sure all the distances have been double-checked.

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Dolly is expected to weaken before reaching the northeastern Caribbean islands, bringing some much-needed rainfall but limited wind impacts....

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This month, we covered a long-term analysis suggesting that landfill methane emissions may be far higher than estimated, as well as new research on unexpected trends in U.S. extreme rainfall. Here are additional studies worth noting....

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A paper published a few weeks ago on the topic of early animal evolution in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution caught my eye. The time period I am referring to is the Early Cambrian, roughly 539 -510 million years ago. A great diversification of animal life occurred during this interval. Many explanations for this phase of rapid animal evolution have been put forth. Expanded shallow marine habitat due to continental rearrangements, an increase in dissolved oxygen, an influx of calcium and zinc to the oceans from continental weathering, both essential for physiologic function and shell building (in case of calcium), and predator prey arms races that drove evolution of novel morphology.The recent study by Julien Kimming and Russel Bicknell proposes that fecal matter that early animals were expelling also played a role in Cambrian animal radiation. Fecal matter is preserved as lumps of calcium carbonate known as coprolites. 

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On 26th August 2026, devastating floods hit Nepal and Tibet. At time of writing, 1400 people were missing, and 270 bodies had been recovered, but this toll is sadly expected to rise.

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"Plants carry traces of past weather. Reading them may help us navigate a hotter, drier world."  Wenli Zhao

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The new initiative at Columbia's Climate School is designed to strengthen university-wide collaboration on issues spanning climate, Earth, society and sustainability....

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An unusual year.   It was 96F (35.5C) when I rode my bike home after class at 6:15 p.m. last night. "3.91 standard deviations above the long term record" is not terribly intuitive to me, the graphs above helped me visualize how extraordinar...

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Computational geodynamic models are powerful tools for understanding Earth's deep interior, but how do we know they are producing realistic results? In this week's News & Views, Alina Valop, a PhD candidate from Virginia Tech, unpacks the world of geodynamic kernels and shows how these sensitivity functions provide a computationally efficient way to benchmark mantle flow models, test viscosity structures, and bridge the gap between numerical simulations and geophysical observations. 

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Below you will find a scheme of work and two lesson plans for working with the Greenland Connection resources.

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A space shuttle astronaut took this photograph of the Mississippi River Delta in January 1985. Today, satellite imagery is helping scientists track decades of marsh loss along the Gulf Coast and Eastern seaboard. The image has been rotated from the o...

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Panelists highlighted environmental justice, local partnerships, New York's climate laws and the need for equitable solutions that protect public health, reduce emissions and build a more resilient city....

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Following the deposition of sediments last week, we now move on to considering the Rock Cycle  'Laying out the rock cycle: product and process; sorting out the rock cycle products - and then adding the processes'.

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I spent an unhappy evening yesterday staring at data, trying to make sense of the inevitability of change. I slept poorly. The Rio Grande through Albuquerque is dry, the Colorado River's reservoirs are rapidly emptying and, unable to come to gri...

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Josie Brooks reflects on an exhibit at Maine's Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum, which explores Inuit food traditions, hunting, art and community....

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The Atlantic is waking up: Two tropical waves could develop this week, but neither poses an immediate U.S. threat....

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We are excited to announce the 22nd edition of Geodesy Campfire - Share Your Research in September. The Geodesy EGU Campfire Events "Share Your Research" give (early career) researchers the chance to talk about their work. We have two exciting talks by our guest speakers, Brian Bramanto and Arash Tayfehrostami. Below, you can find the details of the topics awaiting us. We will have time to network after the presentations.

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This picture is of a large (greater than 30 cm wide) Knemiceras uhligi (Choffat) ammonite fossil. It was found at Baforeira, Parde, Cascais, Portugal and dates to the Cretaceous Period (Albian, about 110 million years ago). As of August 2026 on displ...

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