(Image credit: Scharfsinn86/Getty Images) In this excerpt from The Pocket Guide to Planetary Danger (WH Allen, 2025), author Jacob Thoma, Professor at the SOAS Centre for Sustainable Finance, University of London, examines the existential threat facing humanity: heat. As the…
Researchers have produced the most detailed map of Antarctica’s bedrock to date. (Image credit: Pritchard et al., Scientific Data (2025). Creative Commons.) Scientists have demonstrated the most detailed map of the relief hidden under the ice of Antarctica. This high-quality…
Mount Spurr as seen during an AVO flyby on March 11. The summit crater is located at lower center, and the peak of the crater is at center left. (Image credit: USGS AVO) A massive volcano in Alaska appears to…
Carbon is often stigmatised in the modern climate change debate, but Paul Hawken argues that the element is the basis of life on the planet. (Photo: Beate Whitehead/Getty Images) The oxidized form of carbon is at the center of the…
Satellite images from 1986 and 2019 show how the Ok Glacier has almost completely disappeared from the top of an Icelandic volcano. (Image credit: NASA/Landsat) Two satellite images taken 33 years apart show the disappearance of a glacier in Iceland,…
Lake Baikal is 25 million years old, making it the oldest lake on the planet. (Photo courtesy of Tatyana Andreeva via Shutterstock) Like mountains, lakes on Earth can be very old, or more than 1 million years old. There are…
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current is the most powerful ocean current on the planet. (Photo credit: European Union, Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service) Melting ice in Antarctica is slowing the planet’s most powerful ocean current, according to a new study. An…
Fossils in China suggest the Great Dying was not so devastating in some areas. (Photo: YANG Dinghua) The mass extinction that wiped out 80% of all life on Earth 250 million years ago may not have been so catastrophic for…
The Mount Washington Observatory records wind speeds and weather conditions at the summit of Mount Washington. (Photo by Jose Azel/Getty Images) Mount Washington is the highest point in the Northeast and is known for its extreme weather, with winds exceeding…
Two huge lumps deep in the Earth’s interior are apparently the remains of oceanic crust that was submerged into the mantle. (Image credit: Yuri_Arcurs/Getty Images) We’ve finally figured out where the two giant clumps in Earth’s middle layer are coming…
Kawachi Volcano is considered one of the most active underwater volcanoes on the planet. (Photo credit: NASA/Landsat/Joshua Stevens) This stunning image shows a large column of discolored water rising to the surface of the Pacific Ocean from the Kawachi volcano,…
Cold weather could hit millions of Americans as polar vortex shifts (Image credit: LPETTET via Getty Images) Forecasters warn that a shifting polar vortex could send Arctic air into millions of Americans in the second half of March. The polar…