MS-ESS3-2
Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.
- Climate
Climate change drove Australian wildfires to extremes
Australia’s devastating 2019–2020 wildfires were at least 30 percent more likely because of human-caused climate change.
- Animals
Australian fires have imperiled up to 100 species
As massive wildfires consume huge swaths of Australia’s bush, untold species — many of them found nowhere else — are now threatened with extinction.
- Climate
Explainer: What is attribution science?
A relatively new, developing field of science investigates possible links between climate change and extreme weather events.
- Climate
Explainer: What is thundersnow?
Wacky weather produced lots of thundersnow during New England’s recent winter storms. Some scientists now suspect Mother Nature got some human help.
- Climate
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.
- Climate
Predicting a wildfire with data from space
When the West gets dry it can catch fire. A teen decided to find out if satellite data might show where a fire’s fuel might reside.
- Earth
Water sensor quickly detects algal poison
A new sensor can detect poisons from harmful algae within minutes so that drinking-water plants can start timely treatments.
- Earth
Quake risk in some central states rivals California’s
Risks of tremors in some central U.S. states are as high as those in quake-prone California. The reason: waste fluids from oil and gas drilling.
- Earth
Explainer: What is a tsunami?
Earthquakes and landslides can create huge waves that travel across oceans.
- Climate
Distant pollution may intensify U.S. twisters
A new study of one of the deadliest U.S. outbreaks of tornadoes sees a possible role for smoke. In this analysis, the smoke had come from fires burning in Central America.
- Climate
The worst drought in 1,000 years
The 1934 drought, during a period in American history known as the Dust Bowl, was the worst in a millennium, a new study finds. While the drought had natural origins, human activities made it worse.
- Climate
Lightning strikes will surge with climate change
Warming temperatures will lead to 50 percent more lightning strikes across the 48 U.S. states in the next century, researchers report. That increase could lead to more warming, more fires and even more deaths.
