A newly detected 19th-century volcanic eruption may solve the mystery of a strangely cool decade in the early 1800s, researchers say—but the location of the volcano itself remains a puzzle.
Scientists have long blamed the 1815 eruption of an Indonesian volcano, Tambora, for a worldwide cold snap the following year—the so-called year without a summer.
From “shooting stars” to the growth of dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico, there are several science-related things that occur in the summer. Check out ten.
Lightning may help improve hurricane forecasts by signaling when the storms are about to reach peak intensity, according to a new study.
Current satellite and radar technologies can fairly accurately predict a storm’s path, but when and how much a storm will intensify are harder to pin down.
Earthquakes are notoriously difficult, if not impossible, to predict. “You are dealing with a very complex physical system that behaves very differently in many places,” says David Schwartz, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey’s San Francisco Bay Area Earthquake Hazards Project. Nevertheless, researchers are trying to improve earthquake probability forecasts and working toward, maybe one day, prediction and prevention. Learn about eight of their ideas.
Highlights from the 2008 tornado season, one of the most devastating on record.
Captions for photos of dogs rehabilitated at a dog shelter in the wake of the Sichuan earthquake in China.
A surge of undersea volcanic activity about 93 million years ago sapped the oceans of oxygen, triggering a mass extinction of marine life, a new study finds.
The catastrophic event buried a thick mat of organic matter—from large clams to single-celled algae—on the seafloor, which today is a major source of oil.