The world’s largest waterfall is hidden underwater

The world's largest waterfall is in the ocean

In the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland, a series of cataracts descend from 2,000 to 10,000 feet beneath the surface. The underwater waterfall is possible because cold water is denser than warm water and quickly sinks in the region.

A submarine canyon helps produce the biggest ocean waves in the world

Off the shores of Nazaré, Portugal, the canyon is nearly three times as deep as the Grand Canyon in places. This creates a rare convergence of fast and slow swells that erupt into towering walls of water over 100 feet high.

The largest river on Earth is actually in the sky

High above the canopy of the Amazon rainforest drifts an airborne river fed by the towering trees below. The trees pull water from their roots into their trunks, pushing any excess water out of their leaves and into the atmosphere as vapor. Watch this six-minute video to learn how.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

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

The massive sinkholes of China

Parts of China's limestone-rich terrain is fertile ground for massive caves, where some of the world's largest sinkholes are located. Hidden away in dense, lush forests, geologists are frequently discovering new sinkholes to explore. This piece...

Photographer catches stunning shot of an aurora over an Icelandic waterfall

Photographer Cari Letelier captured a stunning shot of the aurora borealis over the Godafoss waterfall in Iceland, a composite image pulled from nearly three dozen exposures. The aurora phenomenon is typically visible in Earth's northern latitudes...

Visualizing the 75 largest underwater animals

With so many fish in the sea, which are the largest? This infographic shows fantastic illustrations of the 75 largest sea animals, ranked by average size. The detailed visual is organized in descending order of size, starting with the blue whale,...

What we know about the mysterious colossal squid

The colossal squid, the world's largest invertebrate, remained hidden from human discovery until nearly a century ago. Explore the world of the enormous and mysterious creature, including its features, habitat, and scientific significance. You can even plan a visit to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and marvel at a real-life display.

See an anamorphic illusion of a massive crashing wave in South Korea

An enormous aquarium with perpetually crashing waves has popped up amidst an urban landscape in South Korea, but don’t expect to hear the water sloshing around if you walk by. Designed by District, the elevated tank is actually a massive anamorphic illusion. The digital media company created the pub

How glaciers melt

Greenland and Antarctica are home to most of the world’s glacial ice, including its only two ice sheets, making them areas of particular interest to scientists. Watch this three-minute video to learn why understanding them is not just interesting, but crucial to our near-term adaptability and our long term survival in a changing world.

Niagara Falls consists of three different waterfalls

The famous landmark is made up of the American, Canadian, and Bridal Veil falls. Of the three, Bridal Veil is the smallest and forms the other boundary of a small slice of area known as Luna Island, where tourists can view the scene.

Footage from the moments the Titanic wreck was discovered

One of the most famous shipwrecks in modern history, the RMS Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg in April 1912. It was discovered on the seafloor in 1985 by a joint US-French research team about 370 miles southeast of Newfoundland.

The fish can climb walls

Scientists in Brazil captured rare footage of bumblebee catfish climbing waterfalls. How they do it is clear, but why remains a mystery.

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.

Fly through the Valles Marineris, the largest canyon in the solar system

Stretching farther than the width of the continental US and with depths as much as four times those of the Grand Canyon, the Valles Marineris is believed to have formed when Mars’s crust tore open during intense volcanism in the planet’s past.

A look at the Kidd Creek Mine in Canada, which houses the world's oldest isolated water

The mine sits on the Precambrian Canadian Shield—an ocean floor dating back 2.7 billion years. Exhibiting a musty smell, the water is 10 times saltier than seawater and offers insights into Earth's ancient seabed.

Fallingwater is one of the world’s most famous houses

Fallingwater, a country house set atop a waterfall, is arguably Frank Lloyd Wright’s most celebrated work. Legend has it that the initial drawings of the house were hurriedly sketched in just three hours after Wright’s client surprised him with a phone call and announced he wanted to see the plan’s progress.

Why water towers are built that way

Scientists discover what looks like an underwater road

Crew aboard the Exploration Vessel Nautilus discvered a “yellow brick road” that looks it leads to Atlantis. Climage change may affect future ocean studies.

How flooding the Dead Sea could help the climate

There are many dead zones in the world with low elevation and very little rainfall that provide little to no benefits to the ecosystem or climate. This digestible, thorough article explains how piping in nearby water to flood these areas could...

Norway operates the largest SWF in the world—managing more than $2T in assets

The fund is considered the gold standard SWF because of its transparency around investments, politically independent governance, and strong ethical boundaries that serve as the backbone of the investment philosophy. For example, fund managers will not invest in coal, tobacco, or nuclear weapons, because these investments are considered harmful to humanity.

The title of 'World’s Largest Christmas Tree' is disputed

Cities in the US, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands all claim they have the world’s largest Christmas tree—ranging from massive evergreens, TV and communication towers, and hillside light displays.

View a ranking of the countries with the largest helium reserves, led by the US

Estimated at 20.6 billion cubic meters (727.5 billion cubic feet) as of 2022, US helium reserves are more than double those of Qatar, the second nation on the list. Leading the world in natural gas production, from which helium is recovered, the US also leads global helium production, which helps mitigate shortages resulting from overseas geopolitical tensions.

Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat

Often considered the largest natural mirror on Earth, the flat bed exhibits reflective properties, particularly after significant rainfall. However, its reflectivity varies spatially and temporally as water evaporates.

The Channel Tunnel consists of an underwater network of over 200 kilometers in length

The passage beneath the English Channel between England and France includes three tunnels, crossover chambers, emergency passages, and air ducts. Burrowing teams in either country consistently checked their coordinates to ensure they would meet within two centimeters of each other.

British Columbia's 'Infinite Coast' is a hidden travel gem

The long expanse of Pacific coast north of the US border includes Victoria, Vancouver Island, the Great Bear Rainforest, fjords, whale watching, and 50 First Nations that manage the coastline. This site presents the region in an engaging interactive format to attract travelers looking for lesser-known areas of natural beauty.

The volcano threatening the Greek island of Santorini

Santorini is a popular tourist destination, known for its stunning white architecture and dreamy blue waters. Yet underneath the charming island is a potentially dangerous underwater volcano. Recent earthquakes have triggered nearly half of residents to evacuate, signaling heightened uncertainty about when the volcano could erupt. Researchers studying activity in the region plan to produce detailed hazard maps for Greek authorities to improve local safety and emergency planning.

Explore the history, structure, and species of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with this interactive journey narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

See the 25 of the best photos of auroras from around the world.

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.

The boiling temperature of water decreases with increasing elevation because the molecules need less energy to overcome the lower atmospheric pressure associated with thinner air.

All rainbows are 'raincircles' caused by water droplets separating white sunlight into a spectrum of colors, but Earth's surface blocks the bottom half of the circle from our line of sight.

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.

In 1963, a basement renovation in Turkey revealed a passageway to a hidden, multilevel underground city that once housed as many as 20,000 people

In 1915, workers recovered a submarine-like vessel from the Chicago River, prompting fears of German espionage

Larger animals like giraffes, elephants, and blue whales have developed a unique defense against cancer, a phenomenon known as Peto's Paradox

Double world record holder Hunter Ewen helped conquer his fear of balloons, called globophobia, by training to win Guinness World Record titles for balloon inflation.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

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.

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

In preparation for this weekend's Eurovision finale, which is something like the World Cup of pop music, here's a young Céline Dion performing (for Switzerland?) at the 1988 competition.

In 1945, Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and legendary animator Walt Disney began collaborating on a short film that was not completed until 2003, years after both men had died.

When caught in the mouths of cardinal fish, seed shrimp release glowing, bioluminescent chemicals, which alert predators of the cardinal fish, prompting the shrimp's ejection.

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

'Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,' a work by American painter Thomas Moran, inspired Congress to establish Yellowstone National Park.

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

The US Constitution is widely regarded as the longest-standing written national constitution still in force—see how it has influenced rights worldwide.

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

The identity of the Tank Man in the iconic photo from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests remains unknown and was possibly killed.