Wildfire infographic - Discover 1

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(Credit: John McColgan/BLM's Alaska Fire Service/Wikimedia Commons)

Wildfire Stock

Lacy Schley

June 2017

Humans vs. Lightning: What Causes U.S. Wildfires?

NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this view of the Palisades Fire blazing on the afternoon of the day it erupted, Jan. 7, 2025. (Credit: NASA Earth Observatory)

Palisades Fire

Here's what the cataclysmic situation looks like from space.

L.A. Firestorms Have Already Burned an Area Nearly Twice as Large as Manhattan

Grass-covered mounds mark the site of the Roman-era lead mine at Charterhouse on Mendip in the United Kingdom (Credit: Andrew Wilson)


Roman Era Mine

Learn how researchers examined lead levels in ice cores dating back to the Roman Empire, and found concentrations high enough to affect IQs.

Ancient Lead Poisoning May Have Contributed to the Roman Empire’s Downfall  

A study led by Dartmouth researchers shows that microscopic marine animals called zooplankton (pictured) can be enticed to ingest organic carbon particulates in seawater that are later confined to the deep ocean in the animals' feces. The researchers found that clay sprayed on the water's surface bonds with the carbon, creating sticky balls that become part of the ravenous little creatures' daily smorgasbord. (Credit: Mukul Sharma/Dartmouth)


carbon capturers

Leveraging the food of tiny phytoplankton could trap carbon and sequester it to the ocean’s bottom.

Poop of the Ocean’s Tiniest Organisms Could Combat Climate Change

fire

Windblown embers can trigger spot fires much further away than expected. Now a new mathematical model of the way the wind interacts with firebrands explains why. 

Why Controlled Burns Sometimes Mutate into Runaway Wildfires  

Only a tiny percentage of the globe experienced cooler than normal temperatures during January through October. As the red and pink colors in this map of the globe show, almost all of Earth's surface was unusually warm — and a significant portion, including North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Oceania, was record warm. (Credit: NOAA)

Feverish Earth

This year likely will end as warmest on record, and new findings show Earth's icy places are suffering. Meanwhile, CO2 emissions continue rising — and efforts to turn the climatic tide are increasingly threatened.

As International Climate Talks Devolve Into A "Circus," Unsettling News About Global Heating Emerges

A researcher looks out at Arctic sea ice in polar winter. (Credit: Łukas Piotrowski/National Snow and Ice Data Center)

The Arctic at Night

Even as winter takes hold in the Arctic, sea ice there is growing sluggishly. In Antarctica, summer’s arrival has driven sea ice to near-record lows.

Humans vs. Lightning: What Causes U.S. Wildfires?

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