The Ring of Fire is the most geologically active zone on Earth

View a map of the world’s major earthquakes from 1956-2022

Such maps can help identify tectonic plate boundaries. The most significant earthquakes are characteristic of converging plates, such as those in the Circum-Pacific Belt and the Alpine-Himalayan Belt, where the Himalayas continue to grow.

Most volcanic activity occurs in submarine volcanoes on the seafloor

At divergent plate boundaries in mid-ocean ridges, volcanic activity produces new ocean crust as the seafloor spreads. These areas are home to underwater mountains with extensive biodiversity due to redirecting ocean currents and concentrating food for marine life.

The San Andreas Fault is an example of tectonic plates sliding past each other

The transform boundary divides the opposing movements of the Pacific and North American tectonic plates, which create shear zones that distort and fracture rock. These movements produce shallow earthquakes as rocks are gradually displaced hundreds of miles.

Earth’s major tectonic plates make up 95% of its surface

Tectonic plates are pieces of Earth’s lithosphere, which consists of the crust and the solid, upper layer of the mantle. Segments of major plates can break and form minor or microplates, whose total number varies based on ongoing geological activity.

The CCZ is believed to harbor trillions of dollars of valuable minerals and thousands of undiscovered species

Located between Hawaii and Mexico and spanning an area larger than the European Union, the Clarion-Clipperton Zone is the world's region with the most contracts awarded to groups seeking to extract valuable metals by collecting polymetallic nodules. Conservative estimates suggest that 21.1 billion tons of polymetallic nodules exist in this abyssal plain, but about 90% of the species in the area are unknown to scientists.

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.

The movement of seismic waves reveals the structure of Earth’s interior

Changes in temperature, density, and composition alter the path of primary and secondary waves, impacting where they are detected along Earth’s surface. These deflections create shadow zones 104 degrees to 140 degrees away from the epicenter, where no waves are directly detected.

Io, Jupiter’s moon, is the most volcanically active body in the solar system

The innermost and third-largest of Jupiter’s four Galilean moons, Io’s volcanic activity is driven by tidal heating from Jupiter’s gravitational pull. Its atmosphere is very thin and primarily composed of sulfur dioxide, and its volcanic eruptions can exceed 1,000°C.

Movement of molten metal around its solid inner core creates Earth's magnetic field

According to the geodynamo process, the rotation of the planet and the looping, convective flow of electrically conductive iron and nickel produce dynamic electric currents, which generate a self-sustaining magnetic field. This is unlike natural, stationary magnets, which possess a static field created when the metal cooled and its atoms aligned with Earth's magnetic field.

Earth's core is leaking precious metals, including gold

Earth's core, containing 99.999% of all known gold, is leaking trace amounts of precious metals into the mantle. Advanced isotopic methods have detected this leakage at volcanoes in Hawai'i, providing new insights into the movement of material beneath Earth's surface.

The Richter scale was only intended to quantify Southern California earthquakes

The scale, designed to rate the energy of the largest seismic waves released by an earthquake, was calibrated to the region’s crust and mantle properties. Since the 1970s, seismologists have instead used the moment magnitude scale, which considers all waves of released energy.

An overview of the Coral Triangle, which contains about 76% of global coral species

Spanning the waters of Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste, the region contains more than 600 coral species and over 2,200 of the world's coral reef fish species. It sustains 120 million people with food and other resources, as well as a $12B yearly tourism industry.

Yellowstone National Park is situated atop an active supervolcano

Yellowstone showcases geothermal phenomena, including the famous Old Faithful geyser and the vibrant Grand Prismatic Spring. The park's unique geological and ecological features make it an exceptional destination for visitors from around the globe.

38 thought-provoking facts about the ocean

Coral produces its own sunscreen, tsunamis move at 500 miles per hour, one of the loudest sounds ever recorded came from an ice quake, and other interesting facts collected from sources such as National Geographic and NASA.

Boomerang earthquakes reverse direction and ripple back the way they came

Computer simulations show that rapid changes in friction along a fault where an earthquake has traveled for long distances can produce a smaller quake in the opposite direction. Data consistent with the phenomena has only been recorded a handful of times from 2011 to 2023.

If the Earth stopped spinning, 85% of the world's population would experience supersonic winds

The planet's equator moves about 470 meters per second—over 1,000 miles per hour—and air there would continue moving at this speed for several minutes if the ground stopped rotating. These conditions would cause tsunamis, global storms, and fling debris fast enough to destroy nearly all human-made structures.

The Rodinia supercontinent triggered a global ice age when it broke 750 million years ago

Before Pangaea, the Earth’s continental plates had drifted together and broken apart multiple times, with each event altering atmospheric CO2 concentrations and triggering climate change. The continents are estimated to come together again in 50 million to 250 million years.

Ten impact craters you can visit

See photos of ten wild Earth impact craters across the world, the result of impacts occurring between thousands and millions of years ago.

Large igneous provinces are regions of massive ancient volcanic activity

Linked to some mass extinction events on Earth, LIPs contain significant amounts of igneous rock formed by the release of lava and gases over millions of years. India's Deccan Traps and the Siberian Traps are prominent examples of LIPs, whose climate-related impacts can serve as models for analyzing modern climate change.

The best location to view auroras is within the auroral oval

Earth's magnetic field pushes trapped particles from the solar wind toward the planet's magnetic poles, where they can descend and collide with atmospheric gases in a ring located between 60 and 75 degrees of latitude. Auroras can also be viewed at lower latitudes—the sub-auroral oval and solar storm zones—if the sun produces powerful solar storms.

The deadliest aspect of volcanic eruptions is often not lava, but pyroclastic flows—avalanches of ash, gas, and rock that can move more than half the speed of sound.

Visualizing the history of Saturn and its rings

Every 13 to 16 years, Saturn's rings become far less visible because its plane becomes exactly even with Earth's. This visual-rich essay explores the history of humanity's perception of Saturn, from Galileo's first sighting (and dubbing the rings "ears") to the idea that the rings won't last more than a few hundred millions years more. Explore this fascinating planet here.

Ranking the 10 hottest places on Earth

Death Valley in California often gets the press for the hottest recorded air temperature in the world. What about the runners-up? This list compiles the rest of the Earth's hottest spots, from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to Kebili in Tunisia.

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.

Ringworm is caused by a fungus, not a worm

Ringworm, formally known as tinea and known for its red circular rash, is responsible for about 325 million infections at any given time—comprising roughly half the world’s fungal skin infection burden. It’s caused by a type of fungus called a dermatophyte, which also causes athlete’s foot and jock itch. Doctors typically prescribe antifungal tablets or powders to stamp out these fungal invaders.

As of 2022, just 0.5% of installed renewable energy capacity worldwide is geothermal

Despite being able to generate electricity regardless of the weather, solar (28%) and wind (27%) are far more prevalent, primarily because of their lower upfront costs. Geothermal plants use 88% less space than solar farms to produce the same energy, but have been restricted to geologically active regions.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

The US dollar is the most widely circulated currency in the world, and is involved in nearly 90% of global transactions

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

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.

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

While the sun's gravity keeps the planets in orbit, their gravity also pulls on the sun, causing it and everything else in the solar system to orbit around a mutual balance point called the barycenter—the true center of the solar system.

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

Firework or sparkler burns, even if they cover a relatively small area of skin, can significantly affect our range of motion.

How fusion—which releases energy when two lighter atoms combine to form a heavier atom—differs from fission

See how Ebola tore through Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia in 2014-2016.

Watch how deep-sea mining equipment collects and processes polymetallic nodules—metal-rich, potato-shaped rocks—from the ocean floor and creates environmentally damaging plumes of sediments.

The syncytiotrophoblast is the outer layer of the placenta and the largest human cell, spanning an area about twice that of a king-sized bedsheet.

Radioactive elements can introduce software errors because the ionizing radiation they produce can detach electrons from atoms, and computer code relies on the distribution of electrons.

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.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

See a 3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was home to an estimated population of 200,000 to 400,000.

Some researchers have labeled nomophobia, the fear of being without your phone, as 'the phobia of the 21st century.'