2002 Sci/Tech Web Awards: EARTH & ENVIRONMENT

Join Our Community of Science Lovers!

From the birth of Earth to the present, this site chronicles our planet's past 1,100 million years. Terrific animations show giant tectonic shifts; beautiful full-color paleogeographic maps reveal ancient mountain ranges and shorelines; new 3-D images and animations depict the changing planes of Gaia's face. Other sections review climate history in depth and predict what the world may look like 50 million years from now.

The Earth Observatory

On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

Take the long view of this island Earth: this well-built NASA Web site provides easy access to gorgeous satellite imagery and scientific data about our home planet. It has a particular concentration on climatic and environmental change, which helps shed light on these complex topics.

Dive and Discover

Stand on the virtual front lines of oceanographic inquiry with Dive and Discover. The site offers up-to-minute reports about the latest deep-sea exploration missions as researchers investigate the deep ocean's otherworldly topography and bizarre inhabitants.

Wild World

This site, developed by National Geographic and World Wildlife Fund, charts more than a thousand of our planet's diverse ecological regions with excellent interactive maps. It's a good way to get a global perspective on Earth's environmental trouble spots. The Sights & Sounds area lets you hear audio clips and see video shorts of the native fauna in various areas as well.

The Encyclopedia of the Atmospheric Environment

Beyond basic subjects such as climate and weather, this site from the U.K. Department of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs covers a wide range of pressing atmospheric science issues including acid rain, air quality, climate change, global warming and ozone depletion. Each category offers a dozen or more subtopics, with certain pages giving the option of shorter or more technical versions.

Next: ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY

Back to Sci/Tech Web Awards 2002

Subscribe to Support Independent Journalism

Great science journalism requires human expertise, time, effort and creativity. And it costs money. That’s why I and the journalists here at Scientific American hope you’ll join our community.

When you subscribe, you are supporting staff and freelance journalists who are passionate about telling science stories that are true, important and compelling. Our editors and reporters are often experts in their fields, which means they understand the nuances of big discoveries and can untangle the breakthroughs from the hype. With a subscription, you are also supporting rigorous fact-checking to ensure the words we publish are precise and accurate. And you’re supporting original illustrations, graphics and photos that bring you closer to an advanced laboratory, an ice sheet in Antarctica or a space mission in orbit. You’re helping us craft other types of high-quality journalism as well: Our newsletters are carefully written, edited and curated by staffers you have or will come to know and love. Our Science Quickly podcast is based on original reporting, collaboration with editors and scientists and exacting production.

Subscriptions keep this engine running so we can continue to deliver thoughtful, rigorous and independent science journalism to you. In an era of viral misinformation, this work is crucial. If you value what we do, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a subscriber

Thank you,

Jeanna Bryner, Editor in Chief, Scientific American