Stories by OurAmazingPlanet

Aldabra giant tortoises may fill a gap in Madagascar's sensitive ecosystem, scientists say

When salt-rich water leaks out of sea ice, it sinks into the sea and can occasionally create an eerie finger of ice called a brinicle. New research explains how these strange fingers of ice form and how the salty water within sea ice could have been a prime environment in which life may have evolved

Camera traps worked about as well as physical traps at detecting the presence of Komodo dragons―and, in certain areas, did even better, an analysis reveals. The finding is significant because Komodo populations are threatened by human activities

The combined effects of sea level rise and more powerful storms could cause a 10-fold increase in the occurrence rate of extreme storm surges, but smart planning could prevent Katrina-level destruction

A lawmaker has introduced a bill to fund a public version of an earthquake early warning system in California that's currently just in the prototype phase

Thunderstorms are well-monitored over land areas, but there is no similar radar system over the ocean. A new system can provide up to eight-hour forecasts that are updated hourly based on satellite data and weather models

Waterfall-loving Kihansi spray toads had been declared extinct in the wild. Some of the frogs conserved at New York's Bronx Zoo were later bred in Tanzania and are now living in the wild near an artificial system of sprinklers

Sandy's storm surge has long since receded, but authorities remain concerned about the plumes of raw sewage left in its wake

The Salton Buttes, five volcanoes at the Salton lake's southern tip, last erupted between 940 and 0 B.C., not 30,000 years ago, as previously thought, according to a new study

Materials scientists hope their computer model results will spark further research into the effects of carbon dioxide on fracturing in glaciers and ice sheets

Along with wind speed, the sheer size of a storm, how quickly it is moving and the angle at which it's approaching land also influence its potential to wreak havoc. Isaac possessed some of the most menacing of these qualities

Isaac encountered and ingested a system of dry air that prevented the storm's eye wall from forming, a key step in a storm's intensification

"Pumice rafting" colonizes large swaths of the damaged reef instantaneously with organisms hitching a ride on trillions of pieces of floating rock

This week marks the anniversary of the largest earthquake recorded, a magnitude 9.5 event along southern Chile's coast in 1960

The swarms of March caused more than $1.5 billion in damage and killed 40. The drama is difficulty to qualify, however, because tornadoes are "atypical events" by nature

Sweeping images of the sunken ship were made by stitching together hundreds of optical and sonar images collected by deep-diving robots during a 2010 expedition

Brookesia micra may represent the limit of miniaturization possible for a vertebrate with complex eyes

A "Russian winter" climate pattern is keeping Europe frozen, with a strong Siberian anticyclone hovering over northern Russia and triggering intense cold and snow, according to NASA

The revelation comes after days of speculation on whether the years-long effort had finally achieved its goal

Despite the risks of contaminating what may be a pristine and fragile environment, scientists have now drilled to the top of the lake

If they don't reach the lake before they are forced to leave for the winter, the Russian team will be forced to wait two more years to sample water from the lake, and discover what may be living in it

A sonar mapping cruise taken in June to the Baltimore, Washington and Norfolk Canyons and selected regions of the continental shelf revealed steep escarpments that probably pose no tsunami hazard

The first landfall on Midway Islands is expected this winter. What misses Midway will continue toward the main Hawaiian Islands