earth-science

The San Andreas fault and a neighboring fault in Southern California have reached their highest levels of tectonic stress in 1,000 years, and a rupture at one fault could propagate to the other, researchers found.

Lisa Murkowski, a Republican senator, joins Democrats in bid to stop dismantling of Ocean Observatories Initiative US politics live – latest updates A group of Democratic senators and one Republican, as well as two Democratic House committees, sent letters on Monday to the National Science Foundation asking it to reverse course on its plan to dismantle a sprawling ocean monitoring network, with H…

A hidden cave system in New Zealand is revealing fossil evidence of an ancient environment, hinting at a world unlike anything seen in the region today.

A 2021 astronaut photo shows the surprising similarities between Mount Sundoro and Mount Sumbing, which lie at the heart of Java, Indonesia.

Research into deep-ocean volcanic activity is revealing patterns that don’t fit traditional explanations. What lies beneath may be part of a far more extensive system than once thought.

Nature Geoscience, Published online: 16 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41561-026-02016-y Large igneous province emplacement in the Pacific Ocean through the Cretaceous can be explained by interplay between spreading ridge migration and strong mantle upwelling partly driven by enhanced subduction flux, according to geodynamic simulations.

Nature Geoscience, Published online: 16 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41561-026-02012-2 The burial of terrestrially derived organic carbon in coastal marine sediments greatly increased during the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum, probably helping to draw down a large portion of carbon released during the hyperthermal event, according to biomarker records from five sites.

Rapid demand for energy has led to an increase in new techniques for hydrocarbon exploration to avoid uncertainty. Evaluating hydrocarbon potential and estimating porosity is a persistent challenge using seismic and well log data in reservoirs. Seismic post-stacked inversion is a robust method for detailed reservoir characterization that produces more precise and comprehensive subsurface images t…

Nature, Published online: 16 June 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-01915-9 El Niño in a thermally saturated world

Nature Communications, Published online: 16 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-73733-6 Precisely dated cave records show that a prolonged slowdown in Atlantic ocean circulation drove exceptional ocean heat buildup and rapid ice-sheet melting during Termination IV (~340,000 years ago), when sea-level rise rates exceeded those of today.

Eruptions can be ‘stress multipliers’ of any existing civic unrest, researchers warn

High-precision satellite clock bias (SCB) prediction is essential for real-time remote sensing, real-time precise point positioning (RT-PPP), Earth observation, and spaceborne geodetic applications of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). However, real-time services are frequently interrupted in data-scarce environments such as communication outages, which severely restrict the continuity a…

The well-known seismologist on the need for the U.S. to recalibrate its social commitment to science

Nature Communications, Published online: 16 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-74368-3 The study reveals that orbital-driven convection in the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool generates planetary Rossby waves. These waves propagate poleward, organizing a coherent, banded precipitation anomaly pattern across the Asia-Pacific region.

Chile's Atacama Desert, which gets less than 5 millimeters (0.2 inches) of rainfall each year, started to form more than 40 million years ago ‪—‬ 20 million years before the Andes.

Data from a NASA campaign in Panama and Peru will help communities prepare for tropical floods in cloud-covered areas, improve scientific understanding of forest health, and support planning for spaceborne missions. NASA’s C-20A aircraft from Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, flew the Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) instrument, developed at NASA…

A cold blob of water in the North Atlantic points to a weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, researchers report.

Nature Geoscience, Published online: 15 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41561-026-02000-6 Time-resolved X-ray diffraction experiments in a laser-heated diamond anvil cell suggest that hydrogen in iron hydride becomes highly mobile at Earth’s core pressures and high temperatures. The measurements provide experimental indications of a superionic state in which hydrogen moves through a crystalline iron latt…

Nature Communications, Published online: 15 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-74336-x Millions in the US lack official flood risk data. This study uses an AI model to learn from existing maps and complete the US flood hazard map, revealing over 11 million more people exposed to flood risks, a 69% increase from current official records.

On Tuesday's show: We get an update on the potential for “life-threatening flooding” this week as the Houston area faces sustained heavy rains amid a flood warning. And we find out how local chefs and restaurants fared in the annual James Beard Awards.