Watch a tsunami warning system provide real-time alerts across the Pacific

Explore an interactive map of historical volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis

The Natural Hazards Viewer allows users to map the locations of major natural hazards from 2150 BCE to the present. Advanced filters allow for various refinement methods, including volcano morphology, earthquake magnitude, tsunami height, deaths, and damage.

Earthquake early warning systems do not predict earthquakes

Systems like ShakeAlert® use a network of hundreds of ground sensors to detect earthquakes moments after they begin. Since seismic waves travel about 5 km/s, individuals may be notified of earthquakes before they feel the seismic activity has reached them.

The Pacific Northwest's last 'really big one'

More than 300 years ago, a shift in the Cascadia subduction zone caused the seafloor near the Pacific Northwest coast to drop by three to six feet. The force generated a massive tsunami that traveled across the Pacific and devastated Japan.

Tsunamis are caused by sudden seafloor shifts displacing water

Earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 with hypocenters within 100 km of the seafloor can vertically shift large sections of the seafloor significantly. This seismic activity is more commonly found in subduction zones, where an oceanic plate sinks beneath a continental one.

See a visualization of the Japanese attack

This animated visualization reconstructs the two-wave Pearl Harbor strike—showing the flight paths, ship positions, and timing that allowed Japan’s carrier force to severely damage Battleship Row in just 110 minutes while catching US defenses off guard.

Mapping the Tongan eruption impact

A team of scientists—with the help of an uncrewed boat remotely controlled from the UK—join forces to produce one of the clearest pictures to date of what took place underneath the water as an enormous volcano erupted near the Tongan mainland.

Explore and visualize AI-driven global flood forecasts in 'Flood Hub'

Google's tool provides water trends, real-time flood forecasts, local inundation maps, and flood alerts, using AI models and available data to help people and institutions take action up to 7 days before a flood.

NOAA's interactive sea level rise viewer

How will rising seas affect you? Launch NOAA's sea level rise viewer and zoom in on impacts to different parts of the United States, or type in your city or address to learn more.

An 800-ton shake table is the world's largest earthquake simulator

After the 1995 Kobe earthquake killed over 6,000 people, Japan created E-Defense to reproduce the force of earthquakes and test them against structures as tall as 10 stories, leading to changes in Japanese building codes to reduce collapse rates.

Watch a visualization of how Earth's oceans impact its atmosphere, weather, and climate

Data from NASA satellites help view and explain global climate and weather patterns, such as El Niño and La Niña.

Track lightning strikes around the world

The Blitzortung platform triangulates the positions of this phenomenon from stations that detect atmospheric interference in low-frequency signals that are characteristic of lightning strikes. A network of nearly 2,000 stations transmits the required data to a central server, where its software performs these calculations and generates the subsequent visualization.

Chernobyl pushed the world to create rapid-alert systems for nuclear accidents

In the aftermath of the disaster, nations adopted new agreements requiring immediate international notification of nuclear accidents. They coordinated emergency assistance—efforts led by the International Atomic Energy Agency to prevent future disasters from being concealed when radiation emergencies occur.

Watch 1 billion years of tectonic plate movement in 40 seconds

Researchers at the University of Sydney developed the model, incorporating changing plate boundaries rather than just moving continents, to better understand the changes to biological and climatic systems throughout Earth’s history.

Using AI to track plastic pollution in real time

Explore Global Plastic Watch, the first-ever, near-real-time, high-resolution map of plastic pollution. Global Plastic Watch uses advanced satellite data technology and machine learning to measure piles of plastic waste from space.

Explore the decommissioning work at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station

This virtual tour explores the nuclear disaster site, which resulted from a magnitude 9.1 earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, and the various processes underway to remove debris, fuel, and contaminated water.

This real-time tracking of the hantavirus cruise ship outbreak in May 2026 offers a unique glimpse into the global reach of the outbreak and whether the virus sickened passengers and their communities around the world.

See top-down views of Washington state's geology with cutting-edge lidar

Lidar is a revolutionary tool that creates visual models of landscapes using rapid light pulse measurements. Geologists in Washington state have deployed the technology to study the state's fault lines, landslides, tsunami inundation zones, and much more.

Scientists quantify how far from the poles auroras will be visible using the G-scale

The Geomagnetic Storm scale indicates the expected severity of the deformation of Earth's magnetic field based on the amount of energy injected by the solar wind. Solar activity is monitored using various satellites to forecast these storms, which can also be used to anticipate damage and disruption to power systems, radio communications, and satellite navigation.

The National Weather Service communicates tornado risks on a three-tier system

During a tornado watch, atmospheric conditions favor the development of a tornado, and residents in an area should be prepared to seek refuge. A tornado warning is issued if a tornado has been detected, while a tornado emergency indicates a violent tornado has touched down in the area, with severe threats to human life and property expected.

How search and rescue teams remove survivors from rubble

At any time, large-scale seismic activity can devastate entire regions, often with little warning. Emergency responders, then, are perpetually on call. This is particularly critical in areas with poor infrastructure.

An image of a shark swimming on the freeway repeatedly fools viewers during natural disasters

The long-running joke traces back to 2011, following Hurricane Irene in Puerto Rico. Since then, pranksters have spread the image after Hurricane Matthew in 2016, Hurricane Harvey in 2017, and Hurricane Laura in 2020. The image is photo-edited, combining a 2005 photo of a kayaker being followed by a great white shark and a photo of a flooded street.

Video and still images are combined with sonar data to create seafloor maps

Sonar works by sending thousands of sound pulses per second towards the seafloor, capturing the strength and timing of the returning echo. This data can accurately reveal depth, seafloor texture, and the presence of fish habitats to millimeter resolutions.

Explore the animals that populate the depths of the ocean, from fish and coral in the first few hundred feet, all the way down to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

Citizen scientist volunteers can help identify invasive species in wilderness areas

Launched in 2005 by the Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health at the University of Georgia, EDDMapS allows users can document invasive species sightings in the US and Canada in a web-based mapping system. As of February 2026, EDDMapS has over 8.6 million records, all freely available for querying.

Simulate asteroid impact, mitigation, and defense scenarios

Tens of thousands of asteroids are in orbit in our solar system, and only a fraction come close enough to concern humanity. This simulator allows you to see the big picture scenarios of an asteroid impact, strategies to mitigate its destruction, and how Earth could defend itself.

Watch the Challenger disaster unfold in real time

On January 28, 1986, Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart just 73 seconds after liftoff. This live CNN broadcast captures the tragedy as it happened—second by second—showing the shock and confusion of one of NASA's darkest moments.

Watch the director's cut of the award-winning documentary about LIGO

Production on the film began in August 2015, shortly before the facilities detected gravitational waves for the first time on September 14. Those interviewed, including future Nobel Laureates Kip Thorne and Barry Barish, provide their accounts of the discovery as events unfold in real time.

An investigation suggests a Scottish island became awash in forever chemicals via seafoam and seaspray—raising questions about what that means for the safety of other coastal areas.

Fish populations in the Great Barrier Reef have increased after installing waterproof speakers on the ocean floor that played recordings of sounds from healthy coral reefs.

Waves off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, can reach over 100 feet and are caused by the area's deep underwater canyon geography

Visualize the path of every solar eclipse from 1900 to 2099 and see what each looks like when observed from different locations on Earth.

Discover the catastrophic consequences of a failure of the US electrical grid—something that is more likely than many Americans think.

In 1984, Operation Smash Hit intentionally crashed a 239-ton train into a nuclear waste canister at 100 miles per hour to prove the canister's safety, which remained completely intact and lost just 0.29 of its 100 pounds of pressure.

While El Niño moves warm Pacific Ocean waters east along the equator, La Niña moves them west, shifting where rainfall will become more common for months.

Explore chaos in this simulation of two double pendulums, where small differences in the release angles produce wildly different outcomes.

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

Fireworks-related ER visits are on the rise—in 2024, they increased by 52% as compared to the prior year.

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

The Great Salt Lake's distinct dual coloration results from high-salinity organisms that only live in the northern portion and produce a purple protein.

Planeterrellas create artificial auroras that mimic the atmospheric displays of light by setting up an electric field between two metal balls in a jar filled with a small amount of air.

Volcanoes 'die' when their supply of magma runs out, if they are shifted away from their underlying magma reservoir, or if they get clogged by collapsing or their magma cooling back into rock.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.

Search a massive database of over 4 decades of clues from the TV quiz show 'Jeopardy!'

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps is independent of Iran's regular army and is one of the most powerful and influential military-political organizations in the Middle East.