Geography News

November 20, 2025

Top Headlines

Why Saving Microbes May Be the Most Important Conservation Effort Ever

Nov. 20, 2025 Researchers have launched the first coordinated plan to protect microbial biodiversity, calling attention to the “invisible 99% of life” that drives essential Earth systems. The IUCN has formally recognized this effort through the creation of ...

New Report Reveals Major Risks in Turning Oceans Into Carbon Sinks

Nov. 20, 2025 Experts say the ocean could help absorb carbon dioxide, but today’s technologies are too uncertain to be scaled up safely. New findings released during COP30 highlight the risks of rushing into marine carbon removal without proper monitoring and ...

Scientists Finally Discover What’s Fueling Massive Sargassum Blooms

Nov. 19, 2025 Massive Sargassum blooms sweeping across the Caribbean and Atlantic are fueled by a powerful nutrient partnership: phosphorus pulled to the surface by equatorial upwelling and nitrogen supplied by cyanobacteria living directly on the drifting algae. ...

Massive Hidden Waves Are Rapidly Melting Greenland’s Glaciers

Nov. 14, 2025 Researchers in Greenland used a 10-kilometer fiber-optic cable to track how iceberg calving stirs up warm seawater. The resulting surface tsunamis and massive hidden underwater waves intensify melting at the glacier face. This powerful mixing effect ...

Satellite Images Reveal the Fastest Antarctic Glacier Retreat Ever

Nov. 14, 2025 Hektoria Glacier’s sudden eight-kilometer collapse stunned scientists, marking the fastest modern ice retreat ever recorded in Antarctica. Its flat, below-sea-level ice plain allowed huge slabs of ice to detach rapidly once retreat began. Seismic ...

Space Dust Reveals How Fast the Arctic Is Changing

Nov. 13, 2025 Arctic sea ice is disappearing fast, and scientists have turned to an unexpected cosmic clue—space dust—to uncover how ice has changed over tens of thousands of years. By tracking helium-3–bearing dust trapped (or blocked) by ancient ice, ...

Earth Is Slowly Peeling Its Continents from Below, Fueling Ocean Volcanoes

Nov. 12, 2025 Researchers discovered that continents don’t just split at the surface—they also peel from below, feeding volcanic activity in the oceans. Simulations reveal that slow mantle waves strip continental roots and push them deep into the oceanic ...

Microbes That Breathe Rust Could Help Save Earth’s Oceans

Nov. 9, 2025 Researchers from the University of Vienna discovered MISO bacteria that use iron minerals to oxidize toxic sulfide, creating energy and producing sulfate. This biological process reshapes how scientists understand global sulfur and iron cycles. By ...

9,000-year-old Ice Melt Shows How Fast Antarctica Can Fall Apart

Nov. 9, 2025 Around 9,000 years ago, East Antarctica went through a dramatic meltdown that was anything but isolated. Scientists have discovered that warm deep ocean water surged beneath the region’s floating ice shelves, causing them to collapse and ...

Deep-sea Mining Starves Life in the Ocean’s Twilight Zone

Nov. 8, 2025 Scientists have discovered that deep-sea mining plumes can strip vital nutrition from the ocean’s twilight zone, replacing natural food with nutrient-poor sediment. The resulting “junk food” effect could starve life across entire marine ...

Laser Satellites Expose a Secret Antarctic Carbon Burst

Nov. 8, 2025 A new study shows that the Southern Ocean releases far more carbon dioxide in winter than once thought. By combining laser satellite data with AI analysis, scientists managed to “see” through the polar darkness for the first time. The results ...

Antarctica’s Collapse May Already Be Unstoppable, Scientists Warn

Nov. 6, 2025 Researchers warn Antarctica is undergoing abrupt changes that could trigger global consequences. Melting ice, collapsing ice shelves, and disrupted ocean circulation threaten sea levels, ecosystems, and climate stability. Wildlife such as penguins ...

Latest Headlines

updated 2:28pm EST

Massive Hidden Structures Deep Inside Earth May Explain How Life Began

Nov. 20, 2025 Scientists may finally be closing in on the origins of two colossal, mysterious structures buried nearly 1,800 miles inside Earth—hidden formations that have puzzled researchers for decades. New ...

Ancient Bogs Reveal a Hidden 15,000-Year Climate Shift

Nov. 19, 2025 Researchers discovered that ancient peat bogs grew rapidly when the Southern Westerly Winds suddenly shifted thousands of years ago. These wind changes affected both peatland carbon storage and how ...

Scientists Uncover a Massive Hidden Crater in China That Rewrites Earth’s Recent History

Nov. 14, 2025 A massive, well-preserved impact crater has been uncovered in Guangdong, revealing the signature of a powerful meteorite strike during the Holocene. ...

Frozen for 6 Million Years, Antarctic Ice Rewrites Earth’s Climate Story

Nov. 5, 2025 Scientists discovered 6-million-year-old ice in Antarctica, offering the oldest direct record of Earth’s ancient atmosphere and climate. The finding reveals a dramatic cooling trend and promises ...

Scientists Uncover the Secret Triggers of ‘impossible’ Earthquakes

Nov. 4, 2025 Once considered geologically impossible, earthquakes in stable regions like Utah and Groningen can actually occur due to long-inactive faults that slowly “heal” and strengthen over millions of ...

Killer Whales Perfect a Ruthless Trick to Hunt Great White Sharks

Nov. 3, 2025 In the Gulf of California, a pod of orcas known as Moctezuma’s pod has developed a chillingly precise technique for hunting young great white sharks — flipping them upside down to paralyze and ...

Scientists Predict a Wetter, Greener Future for the Sahara Desert

Nov. 3, 2025 UIC researchers predict that the Sahara Desert could see up to 75% more rain by the end of this century due to rising global temperatures. Using 40 climate models, the team found widespread ...

A Warming Earth Could Accidentally Trigger a Deep Freeze

Nov. 2, 2025 Earth’s climate balance isn’t just governed by the slow weathering of silicate rocks, which capture carbon and stabilize temperature over eons. New research reveals that biological and oceanic ...

Soil Microbes Remember Drought and Help Plants Survive

Nov. 2, 2025 Researchers discovered that soil microbes in Kansas carry drought “memories” that affect how plants grow and survive. Native plants showed stronger responses to these microbial legacies than ...

Scientists Discover a Stunning New Golden-Tongued Lizard in China

Oct. 30, 2025 A new species of mountain lizard, Diploderma bifluviale, has been discovered in the upper Dadu River Valley of China. Its distinct traits and isolated habitat highlight the hidden biodiversity of the ...

Antarctic Robot ‘Lassie’ Uncovers Thousands of Icefish Nests Beneath Antarctic Ice

Oct. 29, 2025 Beneath the ice of Antarctica’s Weddell Sea, scientists discovered a vast, organized city of fish nests revealed after the colossal A68 iceberg broke away. Using robotic explorers, they found over ...

Earth’s “boring Billion” Set the Stage for Complex Life

Oct. 27, 2025 Scientists have traced the origins of complex life to the breakup of the supercontinent Nuna 1.5 billion years ago. This tectonic shift reduced volcanic carbon emissions, expanded shallow seas, and ...

Scientists Just Found Hidden Life Thriving Beneath the Arctic Ice

Oct. 21, 2025 Melting Arctic ice is revealing a hidden world of nitrogen-fixing bacteria beneath the surface. These microbes, not the usual cyanobacteria, enrich the ocean with nitrogen, fueling algae growth that ...

Melting Ice Is Hiding a Massive Climate Secret Beneath Antarctica

Oct. 27, 2025 The Southern Ocean absorbs nearly half of all ocean-stored human CO2, but its future role is uncertain. Despite models predicting a decline, researchers found that freshening surface waters are ...

El Niño Could Soon Turn Deadly Predictable, Scientists Warn

Oct. 24, 2025 Scientists have discovered that El Niño and La Niña could become far more powerful and predictable as the planet warms. By 2050, the tropical Pacific may hit a tipping point, locking ENSO into ...

China’s Coastal Cities Are Sinking as Seas Rise at Record Speed

Oct. 23, 2025 Sea levels are rising faster than at any time in 4,000 years, scientists report, with China’s major coastal cities at particular risk. The rapid increase is driven by warming oceans and melting ...

MIT Finds Traces of a Lost World Deep Within Planet Earth

Oct. 17, 2025 Researchers have discovered chemical fingerprints of Earth's earliest incarnation, preserved in ancient mantle rocks. A unique imbalance in potassium isotopes points to remnants of “proto ...

Forged in Fire: The 900°C Heat That Built Earth’s Stable Continents

Oct. 16, 2025 New research reveals that Earth’s continents owe their stability to searing heat deep in the planet’s crust. At more than 900°C, radioactive elements shifted upward, cooling and strengthening ...

Earth Has Hit Its First Climate Tipping Point, Scientists Warn

Oct. 29, 2025 Global scientists warn that humanity is on the verge of crossing irreversible climate thresholds, with coral reefs already at their tipping point and polar ice sheets possibly beyond recovery. The ...

Atlantic Dolphins Are Dying Much Younger. Scientists Sound the Alarm

Oct. 22, 2025 Common dolphins in the North Atlantic are living significantly shorter lives, with female longevity dropping seven years since the 1990s. Researchers found this decline by analyzing stranded ...

Earth’s Climate Just Crossed a Line We Can’t Ignore

Oct. 13, 2025 Humanity has reached the first Earth system tipping point, the widespread death of warm-water coral reefs, marking the beginning of irreversible planetary shifts. As global temperatures move beyond ...

Hippos Once Roamed Frozen Germany With Mammoths

Oct. 26, 2025 New research shows that hippos lived in central Europe tens of thousands of years longer than previously thought. Ancient DNA and radiocarbon dating confirm they survived in Germany’s Upper Rhine ...

Earth Is Splitting Open Beneath the Pacific Northwest

Oct. 25, 2025 For the first time, scientists have seen a subduction zone actively breaking apart beneath the Pacific Northwest. Seismic data show the oceanic plate tearing into fragments, forming microplates in a ...

They’re Smaller Than Dust, but Crucial for Earth’s Climate

Oct. 10, 2025 Coccolithophores, tiny planktonic architects of Earth’s climate, capture carbon, produce oxygen, and leave behind geological records that chronicle our planet’s history. European scientists are ...

Record Amazon Fires Release More Carbon Than an Entire Country

Oct. 8, 2025 The Amazon has suffered its most destructive fire season in more than two decades, releasing a staggering 791 million tons of carbon dioxide—on par with Germany’s annual emissions. Scientists ...

Ocean Heatwaves Are Breaking Earth’s Hidden Climate Engine

Oct. 7, 2025 Marine heatwaves can jam the ocean’s natural carbon conveyor belt, preventing carbon from reaching the deep sea. Researchers studying two major heatwaves in the Gulf of Alaska found that plankton ...

They Were Drilling Off Oregon. What They Found Could Shake All of California

Oct. 22, 2025 Scientists have uncovered evidence that megaquakes in the Pacific Northwest might trigger California’s San Andreas Fault. A research ship’s navigational error revealed paired sediment layers ...

From Gentle Giants to Ghostly Hunters, Sharks Face an Unseen Peril

Oct. 4, 2025 New research reveals that deep-sea mining could dramatically threaten 30 species of sharks, rays, and ghost sharks whose habitats overlap with proposed mining zones. Many of these species, already at ...

1,000 Swiss Glaciers Already Gone, and the Melting Is Speeding Up

Oct. 2, 2025 Swiss glaciers lost nearly 3% of their volume in 2025, following a snow-poor winter and scorching summer heatwaves. The melt has been so extreme that some glaciers lost more than two meters of ice ...

The Billion-Year Reign of Fungi That Predated Plants and Made Earth Livable

Oct. 1, 2025 Fungi may have shaped Earth’s landscapes long before plants appeared. By combining rare gene transfers with fossil evidence, researchers have traced fungal origins back nearly a billion years ...