News
Discoveries, museum news and research from the world of minerals.
Wildfire haze hangs over eastern US—and World Cup final
Heavy, acrid wildfire smoke blanketed much of the eastern United States on Saturday, marring preparations for the weekend's highly anticipated World Cup final to be held in an open stadium in New Jersey.
New environmental performance index highlights sustainability gains, and the challenges ahead
European countries continue to lead the world in environmental performance, according to the 2026 Environmental Performance Index (EPI), a biennial assessment produced by researchers at the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy and Columbia Climate School's Center for Integr...
Florida bloom toxins turn up in air, suggesting inhalation risk beyond shorelines
Research on Southwest Florida cyanobacterial blooms shows that the toxins they produce are aerosolized and potentially inhaled by people far from contaminated water bodies.
More than 2,700 excess deaths estimated in England and Wales during May and June
More than 2,700 people are estimated to have died from heat-related causes during the record-breaking May and June 2026 heat waves in England and Wales, according to a new rapid analysis report led by researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), Impe...
A shattered asteroid may have bombarded Earth 800 million years ago
A catastrophic asteroid breakup may have triggered a huge wave of impacts across the inner solar system about 800 million years ago. The debris was launched from near a gravitational gateway controlled by Jupiter, sending fragments toward Earth, the Moon, and Mars. The bombardmen...
Earth’s biggest volcanic event transformed an entire oceanic plate
Seismic waves have revealed that the oceanic plate beneath the Ontong Java Plateau was dramatically transformed by the colossal volcanic activity that created it more than 100 million years ago. Researchers found a complex structure of horizontal layers cut through by vast swarms...
Wildfire smoke from Canada and Minnesota pushes farther into the US and engulfs DC in haze
Millions of people in the Great Lakes, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states muddled through another day of unhealthy air from uncontrolled wildfires on Friday.
Amazon soy pact collapse could add 1.4 million hectares of deforestation by 2036
The collapse of a landmark Amazon soy pact will drive at least 1.4 million hectares (3.5 million acres) of extra deforestation in Brazil over the next decade, releasing carbon emissions equal to Canada's annual output, according to an analysis published Thursday.
Underwater oxygen loss threatens earth's stability, researchers warn
A new review in Limnology and Oceanography led by scientists at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography warns that the rapid loss of oxygen from the ocean and other aquatic ecosystems is pushing Earth toward an "unsafe space," with consequences that could be irreversib...
River bacteria consume methane but fall short as global warming boosts emissions
Alberto Borges, oceanographer at the University of Liège, has conducted a comparative study in Belgium and Africa on the microbial oxidation of methane in rivers, a natural process in which certain bacteria consume this powerful greenhouse gas before it is released into the atmos...
Wildfire smoke engulfs millions in US ahead of World Cup final
Dense wildfire smoke billowing down from Canada set off unhealthy air quality alerts across the United States again on Friday, stirring concern over the weekend's World Cup final outside New York.
Multiple origin points drive Southeast Asia's catastrophic fires, study finds
How do wildfires grow into catastrophic events? By tracing the earliest detectable origins of the devastating 2015 equatorial Southeast Asian fires, researchers found that most large fires had multiple origin points and identified the ecological, climatic and human factors associ...
Air from Greenland snow shows industrialization's impact on atmospheric methane
An international team of researchers, including scientists from Utrecht University and the University of Maryland, has reconstructed the concentration of clumped isotopes of methane in air from the past for the first time. This provides new insights into how atmospheric methane c...
A volcano in the Philippines erupted 2 weeks ago: Why scientists are still watching it closely
Two weeks ago, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology recorded three distinct, short-lived explosions in less than five minutes at Taal Volcano. The eruption sent a column of ash and steam up to 1.2 km (0.75 miles) into the air.
UK launches hi-tech mission to study Greenland ice melt
A team of international scientists sets sail Thursday from Britain for Greenland to study its rapidly melting ice using drones, mini-submarines and autonomous swimming robots.
Black Sea waters reshaped Eastern Mediterranean circulation 11,000 years ago
A new study led by the University of Barcelona reveals that freshwater exported from the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea triggered major environmental changes across the Eastern Mediterranean.
A new record holder for the world's oldest amber discovered in China
Paleontologists in China have discovered the oldest chemically verified amber ever found, dating to 385 million years ago. That's approximately 140 million years before dinosaurs roamed Earth. The previous record holder was an amber sample from the Late Carboniferous period, dati...
Hourly data reveal Alpine 100-year floods could arrive every 45 to 80 years
Heavy precipitation becomes more intense with every degree Earth warms. This affects flooding. Using hourly data from 384 rivers in the Alps, researchers from the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF modeled how flooding will change by the end of the century. Their p...
Earth has a natural thermostat and scientists finally know how it works
Scientists have identified a hidden feedback loop that may explain how Earth has regulated its climate for tens of millions of years. As sea levels rose and fell, they changed how much phosphate reached the open ocean, affecting marine life and the amount of carbon buried beneath...
Desert dust in Europe is increasing with implications for health and solar energy installations
While particulate matter air pollution from human activity in transportation, households and industry is decreasing in Europe, thanks to strict regulations, another source is developing in the opposite direction: desert dust.
New study pinpoints Europe's most critical wetlands for climate action
Wetlands have shaped human life in Europe since ancient times. These ecosystems provided essential resources and safe havens for plants and animals, and in many regions they also held spiritual and ritual significance. For millennia, wetlands covered vast parts of the European co...
NASA satellites are watching Earth's newest island rise from the sea
A newly discovered underwater volcanic eruption north of Papua New Guinea is unfolding in one of the world's most poorly mapped ocean basins. Satellites have spotted steam plumes, ash, thermal hotspots, and huge floating pumice rafts, suggesting magma is rising surprisingly close...
Europe's most active volcano may have a secret origin
Mount Etna has long puzzled geologists because it doesn't fit any of the three classic ways volcanoes are thought to form. A new study suggests it may instead be fueled by ancient pockets of magma that are pushed upward through cracks created by shifting tectonic plates. If confi...
Record-breaking ocean drilling reveals why Japan's 2011 tsunami was so deadly
Scientists have uncovered a hidden weakness beneath the Pacific Ocean that helps explain why Japan’s catastrophic 2011 earthquake and tsunami became so devastating. By drilling deeper into the seafloor than ever before, researchers discovered a thin, slippery layer of ancient cla...