earth-science

Scientific Reports, Published online: 22 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41598-026-58898-w Numerical simulation of geomechanical responses during horizontal-well cyclic thermal stimulation of natural gas hydrates

In 1996, a blizzard in Everest’s notorious ‘death zone’ killed ‘Green Boots’. Now, a fresh expedition plans to retrieve his body, and establish his identity Thirty years after he perished in a small limestone cave near the top of Mount Everest, the body of the climber known only as “Green Boots” may finally be heading home. If successful, the mission into Everest’s notorious “death zone” will als…

: A rare daytime meteor exploded over the northeastern United States, producing a sonic boom and releasing energy equivalent to hundreds of tons of TNT.

You've got a coordinate. You've got a pile of regions on a map. You need to know: which region does this point fall in, or is it inside one at all? That single question hides inside a lot of features: Geofencing: is this device or user inside the zone? Service / delivery areas: does this address fall in our coverage? Spatial lookups: which territory, district, or catchment owns this point? They a…

These extraordinary fossils preserved details once thought impossible, while also revealing the natural phenomenon that made such preservation possible.

npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, Published online: 20 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41612-026-01458-w Attributing surface climate impacts to decadal variability of the Northern Hemisphere stratospheric polar vortex

Scientists found that thawing permafrost can trigger increased rock weathering, a natural process that absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere. In some regions, this carbon uptake was strong enough to fully offset — or even surpass — river greenhouse gas emissions.

Scientific Reports, Published online: 20 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41598-026-58501-2 Stratapy: a tool for automated stratigraphic log visualisation

Science never ceases to impress! For decades, many researchers and water managers viewed water management through a narrow lens that often forced nature's complex plumbing into simplified and generalised boxes. Yet once we let data from over 14,000 watersheds speak for itself, this study shows that protecting our water future requires us to listen to the rhythm of the landscape; literally! It see…

The island of Maio, Cabo Verde, 600 km the west of Senegal, is the only place where Cretaceous mid-ocean floor of the distal Mauritania - Senegal - Guinea Bissau - Conakry (MSGBC) Basin is exposed, providing a unique opportunity to study the early stages of mid Atlantic opening at outcrop. The Basement Complex of Maio comprises...

Nature Communications, Published online: 20 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-74093-x This study presents a tropical temperature record across the last deglaciation using stalagmites from central-eastern South America. Tropical temperature broadly tracks atmospheric CO₂ and ocean circulation.

Determining the lower limits of pore and throat sizes for shale oil occurrence is essential for reservoir evaluation, yet existing methods yield a single fixed threshold that fails to capture the heterogeneity of interbedded systems. This study addresses this limitation through integrated characterization of 59 core samples from the Chang 7 Member, Longdong area, Ordos Basin, using high-pressure …

When a meteoroid strikes, it generates a wave of energy that moves faster than the speed of sound. When all that energy propagates through material in seconds or less before being quickly cooled and resolidified by a secondary wave, it produces glass. Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Shawn Wright was looking for such glassy material […]

When the magnitude 9.0 Tōhoku earthquake struck off the coast of Japan in 2011, its seismic shivers did more than ripple through the planet. At least one wave traveled 2,900 kilometers (1,800 miles) down to the boundary between Earth’s mantle and liquid outer core, where it was reflected right back to the surface. And there, […]

Nothing showcases the incredible power of our atmosphere like storms, and no one does stormchase photography like Mike Olbinski. In this vignette, he shows a stunning line of supercells caught near sunset on July 17, 2022. The high shear–combined with the setting sun–put on an incredible show. Dust blown up in a haboob, microbursts and […]

Palaeontologist Steve Brusatte on why India is the field’s next great frontier, how dinosaurs came back as the birds outside your window, and what the asteroid did The palaeontologist and Jurassic World consultant says the subcontinent holds some of Earth’s most important dinosaur secrets — if enough young scientists go looking

Evapotranspiration (ET) is a key element in the hydrological cycle. It has a high impact on climate studies, agricultural productivity, and water resource management. Despite its importance, the accurate estimation of ET over semi-arid areas continues to be difficult, mainly due to heterogeneity in land surface properties and large variations in weather patterns. This study follows the PRISMA fra…

A hidden cave in Northern Norway has preserved secrets from a forgotten Arctic landscape for tens of thousands of years. What scientists recently uncovered inside is providing an unprecedented look at a world that disappeared long ago.

Nature Communications, Published online: 19 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-74636-2 Increased continental erosion during the end-Permian mass extinction buffered carbon emissions, delaying global warming by ~50 kyr and promoting marine anoxia, revealing a key link between ecosystem collapse and climate response.