Beth Geiger

All Stories by Beth Geiger

  1. Earth

    Giant volcanoes lurk beneath Antarctic ice

    One of the largest volcanic areas on Earth was recently discovered hiding beneath West Antarctic’s ice sheet. What does it spell for the future of that ice?

  2. Oceans

    How the Arctic Ocean became salty

    The Arctic Ocean was once a huge freshwater lake, separated from the Atlantic by a ridge of land. Scientists explore how salt water overtook it.

  3. Earth

    Ancient Arctic ‘gas’ melt triggered enormous seafloor explosions

    Methane explosions 12,000 years ago left huge craters in bedrock on the Arctic seafloor. Scientists worry more could be on the way today as Earth’s ice sheets melt.

  4. Climate

    Cool Jobs: Head in the clouds

    What do a microbiologist, an atmospheric scientist and a materials engineer have in common? They’ve all got their heads in the clouds.

  5. Earth

    Meet our trashy ‘technosphere’

    People are creating a layer of debris and disturbance called the technosphere. A new study estimates just how truly massive it is.

  6. Archaeology

    Cool Jobs: Hunting surprises in thinning glaciers

    Meet three scientists who are tracking the meltdown of Earth’s glaciers. They share their adventures, predictions and unexpected discoveries.

  7. Chemistry

    Smash hit: Making ‘diamond’ that’s harder than diamonds

    Scientists had suspected extreme meteorite impacts might turn graphite into an unusual type of diamond. Now they’ve seen it happen — in under a nanosecond.

  8. Earth

    Cool Jobs: Careers on ice

    From Greenland to Utah to Jupiter, scientists unlock mysteries frozen in ice.

  9. Physics

    Tracking warfare by ‘Earth shakes’

    Geophysicists are discovering how weapons shake, rattle, and roll the Earth. What they’re learning might one day help win wars.

  10. Earth

    Mystery ‘earmuffs’ sit deep inside Earth

    Two vast blobs in Earth’s lower mantle could result from a “trainwreck” of ancient colliding tectonic plates.

  11. Fossils

    Clues to the Great Dying

    Millions of years ago, nearly all life on Earth vanished. Scientists are now starting to figure out what happened.

  12. Environment

    The heat that keeps on giving

    Burning fossil fuels generates heat and carbon dioxide. That pulse of heat is quickly exceeded by the warmth that carbon dioxide traps in Earth’s atmosphere.