subject
Earth Science
How the planet works as a coupled system: rocks, oceans, atmosphere, and the deep-time processes that shape the surface we live on.
7 lessons in earth science
How Ice Cores Record Past Climates
When snow falls on the high interior of Antarctica or Greenland, it almost never melts.
4 min · deepening
How Ocean Currents Move Heat Around the Planet
If you stand on a beach in western Ireland in January, the air is damp but rarely freezing.
4 min · foundation
How Plate Tectonics Reshapes the Surface
Stand on any continent long enough — geologically speaking — and it will move.
4 min · foundation
Volcanic and Tectonic Mountains: Two Ways the Crust Rises
Stand at the foot of Mount Fuji and then at the foot of the Matterhorn, and you are looking at two mountains that share almost nothing except their height.
4 min · comparison
Why Earthquakes Cluster Along Faults
If you map every earthquake recorded in California over the past century and overlay it on the state's geology, you see something striking: the dots do not scatter evenly.
4 min · deepening
Why It Rains Where It Rains
Stand on the equator at noon and look up. The sun is nearly overhead, the ocean and land below are warm, and the air sitting on that warmth becomes buoyant and begins to rise. As it climbs, it cools. …
4 min · foundation
Why the Carbon Cycle Connects Rocks, Oceans, and Life
A limestone cliff in Dover and a forest in Oregon do not look like parts of the same machine, but they are.
4 min · synthesis