The discovery of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge was initially dismissed as ‘girl talk’

Records of Earth's magnetic field on the seafloor validated plate tectonics

Matching glacial, fossil, and rock records, mountain ranges, and continental shapes across oceans was insufficient evidence for continental drift. Precise measurements of magnetic minerals on the ocean floor revealed seafloor spreading, which could only be explained by moving landmasses.

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.

The theory of plate tectonics first emerged from the theory of continental drift

German meteorologist Alfred Wegener proposed that the continents were all one giant landmass in the past, which he named Pangaea. Despite geological and climate evidence suggesting continental movement, his theory was dismissed until the 1960s.

Mid-ocean ridges are underwater volcano systems where tectonic plates diverge

New ocean crust is formed at these ridges as magma rises from Earth’s mantle and fills the space between the spreading plates. The speed of divergence influences ridge shape, with slow spreads forming rugged valleys and fast spreading creating smooth, wide slopes.

The art of 'undiscovering' phantom islands

Centuries of maps include islands and isles that appear to only exist on atlases. This article explores the discovery and "undiscovery" of such landscapes, which still persist despite modern technology. As recently as 2012, Google Maps showed an...

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.

Into the Mariana Trench

Located in the western Pacific Ocean, the Mariana Trench is the deepest known point on Earth. Its lowest point, known as Challenger Deep, is farther down than the height of Mount Everest by more than a mile. This 13-minute video discusses how the trench was formed, and the extreme conditions at the sea floor.

A simple pictorial explanation of ocean geography

Visualizing ocean geographical features, such as a coastal zone, continental shelf and abyssal plain. This article from the US Geological Survey also provides several links to diverse ocean facts.

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.

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.

Mapping the route options between the Pacific and Atlantic

This map shows some of the alternative trade route options that are available to shipping companies, from overland routes that rely on railways to transport goods coast-to-coast, to Arctic Ocean passages.

A case study of how engineers and geologists at Tullow Oil look for oil reserves

An analysis of surface rocks using aerial and satellite imagery can help narrow the search for crude oil by identifying basins where sedimentary layers have compacted—a key process in oil formation. Surveys that look for variations in Earth's gravitational and magnetic fields consistent with specific rock distributions, or that use sound waves reflected off rock layers—not unlike sonar underwater—can also help map subsurface geology.

Clark’s maps provided the first detailed record of the American West

Covering over 8,000 miles, William Clark’s maps charted rivers, mountains, and tribal territories with remarkable accuracy. Equipped with sextants, compasses, telescopes, and more, Clark became an expert at surveying—requiring extensive celestial and topographical observations each day.

Watch the destructive force of bottom trawling on marine ecosystems

Bottom trawling is a fishing method where a net is dragged along the seafloor to catch a species of interest. The process produces as much carbon dioxide yearly as global aviation and leaves trails of destruction large enough to be seen in space.

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.

Around 380 underwater cables power the Internet across the world.

On July 29, 1858, two steam-powered battleships met in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. There, they connected two ends of a 4,000 kilometer (2,500 mile) long, 1.5 centimeter (0.6 inch) wide cable, linking for the first time the European and North American continents by telegraph.

The history of the world map

What did people used to think the world looked like? From the beginning of human history to right before the age of exploration, learn how the world maps were created.

Researchers identify a hidden instability pattern in simple ocean wave models

Stokes waves—a solution to the mathematics of water waves—were once assumed to be stable. Italian mathematicians have proven disturbances cause these waves to collapse and such collapses follow an infinite repeating pattern. To complete the proof, the team offered a $100 donation to solicit online help.

The Civil War turned the Continental Divide into an American symbol of identity

Historians argue that the boundary only became a celebrated American symbol in the 1860s, when Civil War-era leaders promoted a west-east geographic divide to replace the devastating north-south political divide, and that the term's use spiked after the transcontinental railroad crossed it in 1868.

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

Is China using archaeological findings to boost its territorial claims?

This 28-minute podcast dives into the political ramifications of two Ming dynasty-era ships found in the South China Sea in October 2022. The ships, filled with well-preserved porcelain and timber, were found 1,500 meters—about 4,900...

Soar above the Jurassic Coast’s 185 million years of geology

This sweeping drone video reveals the stark beauty of the UK’s Jurassic Coast, a 95-mile stretch where Triassic red rock, Jurassic layers, and Cretaceous limestone are exposed—one of the clearest visible records of the Mesozoic era on Earth.

Santa Barbara's Channel Islands revealed the oldest skeletal remains in North America

IN 1959, archaeologists found a human femur jutting out from a rock face on Santa Rosa Island. Using the then-new technology of radiocarbon dating, they measured the age of the remains at 13,000 years—the oldest in the continent.

She sells seashells by the seashore or, more accurately, she sells dinosaur fossils along the Jurassic Coast

Now known as the mother of paleontology, Mary Anning was 12 years old in 1811 when her seashore scrounging uncovered an ichthyosaur fossil, the first complete one known to the London scientific community at the time. She spent the rest of her life contributing to a field that didn’t care to welcome her. This article details her life and work.

Galileo's Jupiter discovery shattered Earth-centered universe beliefs

Using a telescope inspired by Dutch designs, Galileo spotted four moons orbiting Jupiter in 1610, providing undeniable evidence against geocentrism and fueled support for the heliocentric model. Galileo’s original telescope design stretched 20 meters long—a feat of optical engineering for its time.

Listen to the earliest known recording of a whale song

A recording of a humpback whale was taken by scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution near Bermuda in 1949, but forgotten for decades. When first captured, researchers didn't know what animal they were hearing, and therefore didn't catalogue the recording. The well-preserved audio was found by the team's archivist in 2025.

Thomas Jefferson dismissed the Erie Canal as 'little short of madness'

When first proposed, President Jefferson scoffed at the idea of carving a 363-mile waterway through wilderness and rock. With no precedent in American engineering, the canal seemed impossible.

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.

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

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.

Hurricanes, which rely on air consistently spinning in the same direction, cannot cross the equator because air curves in opposite directions north and south of it.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

Track the location of the Voyager probes, currently between 13 and 15 billion miles away from Earth.

Recent research found that the brain doesn't seem to massively rewire following amputation—upending earlier beliefs about the cause of phantom limb pain.

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

Corals are themselves not coral reefs—the term refers to the tiny marine invertebrates that build the rigid reef.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

According to the physics of black holes, our 4D reality may be a hologram—a projection of information coded on a 2D surface on the edge of the universe.

Walt Disney's early film 'Alice's Wonderland' was a groundbreaking innovation in the silent film era

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

Many legends about George Washington, including his supposed wooden teeth and the story of cutting down the cherry tree, lack evidence.

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.

The story of Dollree Mapp, whose legal challenge over her 1957 conviction for possessing "obscene material" led to a major strengthening of the Fourth Amendment

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

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'