NZ quakes, tsunami warnings
Threat of tsunamis prompts widespread North Island evacuations.
New Zealanders woke this morning to a series of earthquakes. The largest of them, an 8.1 magnitude quake centred near...
Earth Sciences
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Sierra Negra: Eruption 13 years in the making
Study captures rare details of volcanic build-up on Galápagos archipelago
Scientists have tracked the behaviour of one of the world’s most active volcanoes over 13 years, revealing the first-...
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Magnetic reversal caused massive climate shifts
Scientists link most recent magnetic instability to global environmental change.
About 42,000 years ago, a reversal of the Earth’s magnetic poles triggered massive climate shifts and caused environm...
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What killed the megafauna?
Research suggests extreme climates, not humans, wiped them out.
Human activities and population growth have wrought much destruction to life on Earth. But when it comes to megafauna...
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Himalayan disaster explained
Researchers believe fatal flash flood caused by landslide, not glacial lake outburst.
A devastating flood last week on the upper reaches of the Rishi Ganga River, in India’s northern state of Uttarakhand...
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You may have missed…
Stray science stories from last week to cheer up your Monday.
Sticky explanation Most of us have had the experience of the food we’re cooking sticking to a non-stick frying pan...
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Weather check: Paul Crutzen
Farewell to the father of the Anthropocene.
Paul Crutzen, Nobel laureate and one of the world’s most distinguished climate scientists, died on 28 January 2021, a...
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Tectonic timelapse
This just in: one billion years of Earth’s history in 40 seconds.
It’s not often you can click play and watch deep time unspool before your eyes. An international team of scientists h...
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Focus
Cosmos Q&A: Caring for Country
Indigenous knowledge is vital to the health of our continent.
Australia is faced with multiple environmental crises. Catastrophic bushfires are becoming more frequent and intense,...
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Research
The not so simple life of barchans
Research uncovers their dynamics and interactions.
Sand dunes aren’t just simple piles of sand, as we’ve noted before in Cosmos. Earlier this year we reported on res...
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Discovery
Mapping the undersea landscape of the reef
Four researchers on a boat, despite the pandemic.
About 160 kilometres off the Queensland coast, the RV Falkor is exploring the deep blue waters of the southern Great ...
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Conversation
From small dry things bushfires grow
It’s vital to understand the flammability of litter beds.
By Jamie Burton, Alexander Filkov and Jane Cawson, University of Melbourne The 2020-21 fire season is well underwa...