June 20, 2018
Energy Notes: May 2007-2008
U.S. Oil & Petroleum Imports (millions of barrels per day) Oil and petroleum imports data are preliminary numbers taken from the American …
The EARTH archive
September 2008
Explore the archive by subject.
26 articles · Page 1 of 2
June 12, 2018
Mineral Resource of the Month: Antimony
James F. Carlin Jr., mineral commodity specialist for the U.S. Geological Survey, compiled the following information on antimony, an essential …
March 9, 2018
Down to Earth With: Award-winning sci-fi novelist Kim Stanley Robinson
Don’t let Kim Stanley Robinson fool you. He may know a lot about the geography of Mars and ocean acidification, but he’s no scientist. He’s an …
September 1, 2015
Benchmarks: September 21, 1938: The great New England Hurricane strikes
After a disappointing golf outing (the wind made it impossible to drive a golf ball anywhere but straight up), golf pro Raymond Dennehy and his …
January 20, 2012
The art of un-legislating
Taking public approval ratings at face value, it would be easy to conclude that the legislative branch of our government is motivated by an …
January 5, 2012
Trial by Fire
What makes a fire burn? In addition to fuel (such as wood or paper) and heat, fires need oxygen. If there isn’t enough oxygen in the atmosphere, …
January 5, 2012
Travels in Geology: Taking in Hawaii's Big Island
For a bit of money, visitors to Hawaii can indulge their touristy impulses with a single night of mai tais and luaus. But take on Hawaii’s …
January 5, 2012
Toxic tide
In the Gulf of Mexico lurk menacing masses of single-celled organisms known as red tides. Scientists have long known that the potent toxin they …
January 5, 2012
The quicker oil picker upper
After the Cosco Busan container ship crashed into the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge last November and leaked more than 58,000 gallons of fuel …
January 5, 2012
Swapping one greenhouse gas for another
There are no miracle cures, it would seem. Nitrogen trifluoride is a colorless, nontoxic gas that has helped make the semiconductor industry …
January 5, 2012
Spot-free sun: Is that normal?
For the past few years, astronomers and scientists have been looking up at a sun that is, more often than not, rather blank. Almost too blank. …
January 5, 2012
New York's Dirty Secret: The effort to clean up America's largest oil spill
Wedged between the hard-bitten boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, N.Y., lies a six-kilometer-long slip of sickly green water called Newtown Creek. …
January 5, 2012
NASA's hurricane pages updated
Friday, Sept. 5, 10:30 a.m. EDT — All of a sudden it's really busy out there: There are four storms currently spinning in the Atlantic: Gustav …
January 5, 2012
Mapping safer drinking water
Beginning in the 1970s, international aid agencies dug hundreds of thousands of wells in Bangladesh to help people access clean drinking water. …
January 5, 2012
Large earthquake rocks Iran oil port
Wednesday, Sept. 10, 12:30 p.m. EDT — At 3:30 p.m. local time, a magnitude-6.0 earthquake struck Iran near the southern port city of Bandar …
January 5, 2012
It's a Dirty Job, But Someone's Gotta Do It
Fossilized feces reveal significant details about ancient life How often do you laugh when you talk to a scientist? Over the years, I have …
January 5, 2012
Glacier moves in fits and starts
The Whillans Ice Stream — an Antarctic glacier that covers an area slightly smaller than the state of New Jersey — flows from the interior of the …
January 5, 2012
Games: In Spore, cells divide and conquer
I’m no evolutionary biologist, but I’m pretty sure that you can’t just add a horn or an extra ear to your own body whenever you feel like you …
January 5, 2012
Energy's the hot topic this week on the Hill
UPDATE: The House energy bill, which will allow offshore drilling and gives states incentives by sharing the revenues from drilling leases with …
January 5, 2012
Electrical failure shuts collider down for the winter
Well, it had a short run: Only nine days after going online Sept. 10, CERN's Large Hadron Collider has already gone south for the winter, due to …
January 5, 2012
Dye-ing for efficient solar power
Solar energy is an abundant resource, but so far, solar panels have tended to be relatively expensive and less efficient than desired. Now …
January 5, 2012
Creeping faults warn of impending earthquakes?
Earthquakes strike out of nowhere — one minute everything is perfectly calm, and the next minute, the ground shakes violently and buildings …
January 5, 2012
Brazil says 'no thanks' to OPEC
I didn't know you could do that. Back in August, Iran had invited Brazil to join OPEC, but Brazil declined, saying it had "other priorities." And …
January 5, 2012
Bolivia turns iron mountain into gold
In the heart of Bolivia’s tropics lies a mountain known as El Mutún. The mountain doesn’t look exceptional, but beneath its lush cover of …