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Grades 9-12


Interactive: How Far is Far?

This interactive explains how astronomers measure the properties of light from faraway space objects to calculate their distance from Earth. Users click through a series of pages that explain the concepts step-by-step with illustrations and animations.



Article: The Big Questions


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Essay: Stars in Exquisite Accuracy




Article: GRACE Watches Earth's Water

Earth's water is in constant motion. It cycles through the planet's atmosphere, surface, and depths. This water cycle is fundamental to Earth’s climate — and is being dramatically affected by global warming.



Shaping a Continent: Version 1.0

Discover how scientists are now marrying traditional fieldwork with cutting-edge computer modeling to produce the first animated, theoretical picture of the Basin and Range Province's geological evolution.



Article: Follow the Magma

In 1669, the fastest and largest lava flow documented for Mount Etna on the island of Sicily killed most of Catania's 20,000 residents and destroyed much of the city. Why are scientists now watching Etna more than any other volcano in Europe? Find out.



The Ice Plant Cometh

During a July 2004 project to drill an ice core from the top of Peru's Andes Mountain, the lead researcher took a detour… and made a discovery with profound implications. Learn more.



Expedition for an Ice Core

By analyzing the relics glaciers hold — compacted snow and trapped air from ancient atmospheres, ash from long-quiet volcanoes, dust, insects, and pollen — scientists can reconstruct hundreds of thousands of years of Earth’s climate.



The Coming and Going of an Ice Age

In the past two million years alone, Earth has experienced around 20 ice ages — cycles of advance and retreat of large continental ice sheets. When is the next one due? And will global warming change that due date?



Rapid Change in a Warming World

Climate change isn’t always slow, small, and imperceptible in a human lifetime. Ice core analysis has found a single decade in which temperatures over Greenland shot up about 15 degrees Celsius.


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