Climate & Water
Why Does Ice Float on Water?
Ice floats because ordinary solid water is less dense than liquid water. As water freezes under everyday pressure, hydrogen bonds organize molecules into an…
Oct 9, 2026 • 13 min readOUR LIVING PLANET
Earth & The Planet
Journey through the forces, places and systems that define our extraordinary planet.
EDITOR’S PICK
Why Volcanoes Produce Lightning
Inside an eruption cloud, colliding ash, ice and fragmented rock can separate electric charge until the plume discharges like a violent thunderstorm.
Sep 16, 2026 • 4 min readRead the discovery →LATEST
Latest discoveries
New stories, explanations and research from Earth & The Planet.
Earth & The Planet
How Do Sand Dunes Move?
Sand dunes migrate when wind transports grains up their windward slope and deposits them near the crest. Sand then avalanches down the steeper sheltered…
Oct 6, 2026 • 13 min read
Earth & The Planet
How Do Clouds Stay in the Sky?
Cloud droplets and ice crystals are heavier than air, so gravity does pull them downward. They remain aloft because individual particles are tiny and…
Oct 6, 2026 • 13 min read
Earth & The Planet
How Are Caves Formed?
Most familiar caverns form when mildly acidic groundwater dissolves soluble rock, especially limestone, along fractures and bedding planes. Flow enlarges openings into passages; later…
Oct 5, 2026 • 12 min read
Earth & The Planet
What Causes Ocean Waves?
Most everyday ocean waves form when wind transfers energy to the surface. Size depends mainly on wind speed, duration and fetch—the uninterrupted distance across…
Oct 4, 2026 • 13 min read
Earth & The Planet
Why Do Earthquakes Happen?
Most earthquakes happen when tectonic forces slowly deform rock on opposite sides of a fault. Friction keeps the fault locked while elastic strain accumulates.…
Oct 3, 2026 • 12 min read
Climate & Ice
How Do Glaciers Move?
Glaciers move because gravity pulls their enormous mass downhill. Ice deforms internally as crystals change shape and slide past one another, while many glaciers…
Oct 1, 2026 • 12 min read
Earth & The Planet
Why Is the Ocean Salty?
The ocean is salty because water dissolves ions from rocks and carries them to the sea, while seafloor reactions add or exchange more dissolved…
Oct 1, 2026 • 13 min read
Earth & The Planet
How Do Snowflakes Form?
A snow crystal begins when water vapour deposits as ice around a tiny particle in a cold cloud. The hexagonal arrangement of water molecules…
Oct 1, 2026 • 14 min read
Climate Systems
How Atmospheric Rivers Move Water Across Continents
Long, narrow corridors of water vapour transport enormous quantities of moisture, sometimes relieving drought and sometimes producing destructive flooding.
Sep 30, 2026 • 12 min readWORTH KNOWING
Popular & evergreen
Climate Systems
How Ice Cores Preserve Earth’s Ancient Atmosphere
Layered polar ice stores old air, volcanic fallout, dust and water chemistry that scientists use to reconstruct past climates.
Sep 21, 2026 • 12 min read
Earth & The Planet
How Seismic Waves Reveal Earth’s Hidden Interior
Earthquakes send different kinds of waves through the planet, allowing researchers to map boundaries, materials and motion far below any drill.
Sep 19, 2026 • 12 min read
Earth & The Planet
How Scientists Detect Tsunamis Before They Reach Shore
Seismometers, satellite positioning, seabed pressure sensors and coastal gauges transform an offshore disturbance into a rapidly updated warning.
Sep 13, 2026 • 13 min read
Earth & The Planet
How Plate Tectonics Continually Rebuilds Earth
Ocean floors are created and consumed, continents collide and landscapes rise and erode within one measurable planetary system.
Sep 13, 2026 • 13 min read