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.
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,...
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. (more) 2 of 2 Klamath Mountains: Trinity AlpsThe Trinity Alps, a subrange of the Klamath Mountains, northern California, U...
bounded to the northeast by a series ofoceanic troughsand to the northwest by troughs, a chain ofcoral reefs, and a series of submarine ridges. The third major unit of the Earth’s crust in Indonesia is an extension of the belt of mountains that formsJapanand thePhilippines; the mountains...
The Appalachians are among the oldest mountains on Earth, born of powerful upheavals within the terrestrial crust and sculpted by the ceaseless action of water upon the surface. The two types of rock thatcharacterizethe present Appalachian ranges tell much of the story of the mountains’ long ex...
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...
Rivers running westwardacquiredtremendous erosive power. Following fracture lines marking weaknesses in the Earth’s crust, they dug out gorges and canyons that knifed deep into the jagged coast. To the east the land sloped more gently, and broader valleys were formed. During repeated periods of ...
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