Planet Earth
A rocky planet with a molten heart, a restless crust and a thin skin of water and air. These readings explain how the Earth works, from the core to the top of the atmosphere.
7 articles · about 28 minutes of reading
Planet Earth
Inside the Earth
Beneath your feet lie 6,370 kilometres of rock and metal, hotter than the surface of the Sun at the centre. No one has drilled even one percent of the way down.
Article · 4 min read
Planet Earth
Plate Tectonics and Earthquakes
The continents are moving at the speed your fingernails grow. Where they collide, mountains rise; where they grind past each other, the ground shakes.
Article · 4 min read
Planet Earth
Rocks, Minerals and Fossils
Every pebble is a page in a 4.5-billion-year story. Learn to read the three kinds of rock, the crystals they are made of, and the dead things trapped inside them.
Article · 4 min read
Planet Earth
The Atmosphere
The air is a thin shell of gas, mostly nitrogen, that keeps us warm, shields us from radiation and burns up the rocks that fall from space. Here is how it is built.
Article · 4 min read
Planet Earth
The Oceans
Water covers 71 percent of the planet, mostly in darkness and under crushing pressure. We have mapped the surface of Mars in more detail than our own seafloor.
Article · 4 min read
Planet Earth
Volcanoes
There are about 1,350 potentially active volcanoes on land, and far more under the sea. They built the continents, made the air breathable and can bury cities in hours.
Article · 4 min read
Planet Earth
Weather and Climate
Weather is what the sky does today; climate is what it tends to do over decades. Both are driven by one thing: the Sun heating a spinning, watery planet unevenly.
Article · 4 min read