tore through Earth's orbit and collided with the STEREO-A spacecraft. According to Daniel Baker of the University of Colorado, had the superstorm occurred one week earlier, Earth would have received the impact and devastating after-effects. ...
Earth, third planet from the Sun and the fifth largest planet in the solar system in terms of size and mass. Its single most outstanding feature is that its near-surface environments are the only places in the universe known to harbor life. Learn more ab
Earthquake, any sudden shaking of the ground caused by the passage of seismic waves through Earth’s rocks. Earthquakes occur most often along geologic faults, narrow zones where rock masses move in relation to one another.
dissolve into shallow seas and coral reefs. Beneath this surface the unique and complex physical structure of Indonesia encompasses the junction of three major sections of the Earth’s crust and involves a complicated series of shelves,volcanic mountainchains, anddeep-sea trenches. The island of Bor...
7 (or 8) Summits: The World’s Highest Mountains by Continent Is Mount Everest Really the Tallest Mountain in the World? Cheating Death on Everest Exploring 7 of Earth’s Great Mountain Ranges Discover 7 of the World’s Deadliest Plants ...
Sweden occupies the greater part of the Scandinavian Peninsula, which it shares withNorway. The land slopes gently from the high mountains along the Norwegian frontier eastward to the Baltic Sea. Geologically, it is one of the oldest and most stable parts of the Earth’s crust. Its surface fo...
San Andreas FaultAt the San Andreas Fault in California, the North American Plate and the Pacific Plate slide past each other along a giant fracture in Earth's crust. 2 of 2 Klamath Mountains: Trinity AlpsThe Trinity Alps, a subrange of the Klamath Mountains, northern California, U.S. ...
Earth’s crust) created a distinctisland arcandoceanic trenchstructure by theCarboniferous Period(about 359 to 299 million years ago), whendepositionbegan in the downwarps (trenches) of the sedimentary rocks that today make up some three-fourths of New Zealand. Thisenvironmentlasted about 250 ...
Plate tectonics—the shifting of large, relatively thin segments of Earth’s crust—and stream erosion have done the most to create Arizona’s spectacular topography. Specifically, the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate came into contact and created the major tectonic forces that uplifted,...
Moon, Earth’s sole natural satellite and nearest celestial body. Known since prehistoric times, it is the brightest object in the sky after the Sun. Its name in English, like that of Earth, is of Germanic and Old English derivation.