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Scientists have warned that New Orleans could become an island by 2070, and that relocating its population may be necessary if sea levels rise to higher projections. Louisiana is known for being a particularly low-lying region, which makes it no surprise that New Orleans, a city of around 360,000 people, is vulnerable to sea-level rise. The wetlands that surround the city act as a buffer against

Learn how satellite radar captured the moment a Manhattan-sized ice island broke away from Greenland’s Petermann Glacier and why scientists are keeping a close watch. Manhattan-sized piece of ice breaking away from Petermann Glacier (Image Courtesy of the ESA and Copernicus Sentinel/ CC-BY-SA3.0 IGO)  As summer progresses, one of the Arctic’s most significant ice-loss events

Researchers warn that U.S. data centers could devour vast amounts of energy and water unless stronger guardrails shape the industry’s growth. When Cornell University systems engineer Fengqi You started modeling the environmental footprint of data centers three years ago, the A.I. boom was just beginning. Even then, You and his colleagues noticed something missing from the conversation

Getty Images Mould found at the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster appears to be feeding off the radiation. Could we use it to shield space travellers from cosmic rays? In May 1997, Nelli Zhdanova entered one of the most radioactive places on Earth – the abandoned ruins of Chernobyl's exploded nuclear power plant – and saw that she wasn't alone. Across the ceilin

Bathymetry of the seafloor around the Southeast Indian Rift where two tectonic plates abruptly opened a portal to the magmatic underworld in April 2024. (Royer et al., Nature, 2026) Most of our planet's crust is forged in a thalassic factory human eyes never see. Across 65,000 kilometers (40,400 miles) of the ocean floor, a system of mid-ocean ridges marks the boundaries where Earth's

A patch of water south of Greenland and Iceland has cooled by nearly 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit since 1900. A new study suggests that it shows a crucial system of ocean currents is weakening, which could alter Earth’s climate The "cold blob," shown in blue near the top, is also called the Atlantic "warming hole." NASA SVS The ocean has been heating up over the past century, largely due to hum

It's long been known that the Vikings were the first Europeans to make the long journey to the Americas, arriving in what is now Canada sometime around the end of the first millennium. At the L'Anse aux Meadows historical site in Newfoundland, Canada, a 10th or 11th century Viking home is depicted. The settlement is the only confirmed Norse archeological site in the Americas outside of

This year's El Niño is on track to be among the strongest ever recorded. A wave of warm water and higher-than-usual sea surfaces (red) stretches across the Pacific, a few days before El Niño was declared. (Image credit: Data for the map were acquired by the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite and processed by scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).NASA Earth Observatory/Lau

Scientists at Newcastle University are part of a research team that has discovered an ancient river landscape preserved beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. The landscape appears to have been formed by rivers at least 14 million years ago and possibly even before the initial growth of East Antarctic ice around 34 million years ago. It consists of ancient valleys and ridges, not dissimil