1934 is the hottest year on record

The year 1934 was a very hot year in the United States, ranking fourth behind 2012, 2006, and 1998. However, global warming takes into account temperatures over the entire planet. The U.S.’s land area accounts for only 2% of the earth’s total surface area. Despite the U.S. heat in 1934, the year was not so hot over the rest of […]

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Tracing The Moon’s Origins

Some new thinking may have brought astronomers a step closer to solving the mystery of how our moon formed. Researchers have long believed that the moon was cleaved from a Mars-sized planet that collided with Earth some 4.5 billion years ago. Yet recent tests of lunar rock samples suggest that the moon’s chemical makeup is too similar to Earth’s to […]

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Megadrought may grip the Southwest

Megadrought

The Southwest and central Great Plains are likely to be hit in coming decades by the most prolonged megadrought in more than 1,000 years, a new climate study predicts. Scientists from NASA, Columbia University, and Cornell University created a long-term climate model after analyzing historical temperature records, carbon dioxide emissions, and drought trends from tree rings.The record shows that the […]

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The sun takes a rare hiatus

Sunspot activity may be entering a lull for the first time in almost 400 years, offering scientists a rare chance to gauge how solar conditions affect Earth’s climate. “This is highly unusual and unexpected” says Frank Hill, a researcher at the National Solar Observatory. Three new NSO studies suggest that the sun’s fluctuating magnetic field may soon become too weak […]

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You Can Get an Antarctica World Passport

Antarctica World Passport

You might not be a resident of Antarctica, but “no biggie”, say artists Lucy and George Orta. They’re giving out Antarctica passports, anyway. You can apply for an Antarctica passport online through the Antarctica World Passport program. In 1959 the Antarctic Treaty stipulated that the southernmost continent “shall continue forever to be used exclusively for peaceful purposes and shall not become […]

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A new water world

Saturn’s ice-covered moon Enceladus could harbor a warm-water ocean beneath its frozen surface, opening up new possibilities for life beyond Earth. Enceladus has fascinated astronomers since 2005, when NASA’s Cassini probe caught geysers on the moon’s south pole spewing out plumes of salty water. Water that is thought to have originated in an ocean buried beneath the moon’s 25-mile-thick ice […]

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Reef madness

It seemed like a good idea at the time. In 1972, Broward County, Fla., organized more than 100 boats to dump an estimated 700,000 tires into the Atlantic Ocean in hopes of sparking the growth of an artificial reef. Ultimately corals never grew on the bundles of tires, and over time the bundles became loose, causing damage to nearby natural […]

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