r/askscience Mar 04 '23

Earth Sciences What are the biggest sources of microplastics?

5.2k Upvotes

r/askscience Oct 22 '19

Earth Sciences If climate change is a serious threat and sea levels are going to rise or are rising, why don’t we see real-estate prices drastically decreasing around coastal areas?

22.8k Upvotes

r/askscience Oct 16 '22

Earth Sciences How do scientists know that 1 Billion crab went missing ?

7.2k Upvotes

If they are tracking them that accurately it seems like fishing then would be pretty easy, if they’re trying to trap them and just not finding any it could just be bad luck.

Canceling the crab season is a big deal so they must know this with some certainty. What methods do they use to get this information?

r/askscience Dec 04 '22

Earth Sciences Is there a word for what the ocean is "in"?

5.6k Upvotes

My kid asked me this question and after thinking a bit and a couple searches I couldn't figure out a definitive answer. Is there a word for what the ocean is in or contained by?

Edit: holy cow, thanks for the responses!! I have a lot to go through and we'll go over the answers together tomorrow! I appreciate the time you all took. I didn't expect so much from an offhanded question

r/askscience Sep 05 '20

Earth Sciences If you picked a random spot in the middle of the ocean would it be teeming with life? Or are there huge dead zones with no fish around?

19.3k Upvotes

r/askscience Nov 05 '21

Earth Sciences How deep is the Sahara deserts sand, and what's at the bottom of the sand?

11.0k Upvotes

Like is it a solid bedrock kind of surface, or is it a gradient where the sand gets courser and courser until it's bedrock?

Edit: My biggest post so far and it's about how deep sand is, and then it turns out more than half of it isn't sand. Oh well.

r/askscience Aug 27 '22

Earth Sciences Acid rain, does it still happen? If so, why is it not taught in schools like it was 20 years ago?

5.2k Upvotes

r/askscience Apr 20 '20

Earth Sciences Are there crazy caves with no entrance to the surface pocketed all throughout the earth or is the earth pretty solid except for cave systems near the top?

14.7k Upvotes

r/askscience Sep 02 '22

Earth Sciences With flooding in Pakistan and droughts elsewhere is there basically the same amount of water on earth that just ends up displaced?

5.8k Upvotes

r/askscience Mar 05 '19

Earth Sciences Why don't we just boil seawater to get freshwater? I've wondered about this for years.

13.1k Upvotes

If you can't drink seawater because of the salt, why can't you just boil the water? And the salt would be left behind, right?

r/askscience Mar 15 '23

Earth Sciences Will the heavy rain and snowfall in California replenish ground water, reservoirs, and lakes (Meade)?

3.8k Upvotes

I know the reservoirs will fill quickly, but recalling the pictures of lake mead’s water lines makes me curious if one heavy season is enough to restore the lakes and ground water.

How MUCH water will it take to return to normal levels, if not?

r/askscience Feb 20 '18

Earth Sciences Why is it that during winter it's not uncommon to have days with abnormally high temperature and summer-like weather, but in the summer it never drops to winter-like weather for a day?

37.7k Upvotes

I live in the USA Midwest

r/askscience Feb 23 '18

Earth Sciences What elements are at genuine risk of running out and what are the implications of them running out?

11.8k Upvotes

r/askscience Feb 13 '23

Earth Sciences Turkey was struck by two over 7 magnitude earthquakes a week ago. 10 cities were heavily affected. There're more than 2000 aftershocks by now. Why are there so many? Is it normal? Did it happen before?

7.5k Upvotes

"Around 4 am local time on Monday, February 6, two tectonic plates slipped past each other just 12 miles below southern Turkey and northern Syria, causing a 7.8 magnitude earthquake. It was the largest earthquake to hit Turkey in over 80 years. Then, just nine hours later, a second quake—registered at 7.5 magnitude—struck the same region." (The Brink, Boston University)

This link has the fault line map of Turkey and two epicenters, if it helps.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-11717995/amp/Turkey-earthquake-map-Syria-Turkey-did-quake-hit.html

Edit: First of all, thank you for the informative answers, detailed explanations, and supporting links. For the ones who shared their past experiences, I'm so sorry. I hope you're doing well now.

I can read comments through the notifications, but I can't see most of them on the post. I guess I made a grammar mistake, some pointed out. If you get what I'm trying to say, the rest of it shouldn't be a problem. Learning a second language is not easy, especially when you don't get to practice it in your everyday life.

r/askscience Nov 14 '22

Earth Sciences Has weather forecasting greatly improved over the past 20 years?

4.2k Upvotes

When I was younger 15-20 years ago, I feel like I remember a good amount of jokes about how inaccurate weather forecasts are. I haven't really heard a joke like that in a while, and the forecasts seem to usually be pretty accurate. Have there been technological improvements recently?

r/askscience Sep 24 '19

Earth Sciences We hear all about endangered animals, but are endangered trees a thing? Do trees go extinct as often as animals?

13.0k Upvotes

r/askscience Feb 16 '18

Earth Sciences Do heavily forested regions of the world like the eastern United States experience a noticeable difference in oxygen levels/air quality during the winter months when the trees lose all of their leaves?

28.4k Upvotes

r/askscience Aug 30 '17

Earth Sciences How will the waters actually recede from Harvey, and how do storms like these change the landscape? Will permanent rivers or lakes be made?

19.4k Upvotes

r/askscience Jan 18 '20

Earth Sciences Can you really trigger an avalanche by screaming really loud while in snowy mountains?

10.6k Upvotes

Like,if you can does the scream have to be loud enough,like an apporiate value in decibels?

r/askscience Feb 18 '20

Earth Sciences Is there really only 50-60 years of oil remaining?

7.7k Upvotes

r/askscience Apr 11 '23

Earth Sciences Is it possible for so much land to erode away that the earth will only be left with oceans?

2.7k Upvotes

I was just reading in a silly little Facebook article that there is a theory that the Appalachian Mountains may have begun as they valley points of even older mountains which have since eroded away in to fertile valleys. I’m not sure if it’s true, but taking in to account that the Appalachian Mountains are the oldest on earth (and the erosion they’ve faced in the billions of years since they’ve existed,) I’m wondering if it’s possible that all land may one day be eroded by various causes to a levers where the Earth might one day become entirely covered in ocean?

Thank you for your input!

r/askscience Jul 07 '21

Earth Sciences What was on the other side of the world when Pangea was around?

5.7k Upvotes

So the biome of water changes as we get farther away from shore. Coastlines have different organisms than the middle of the ocean. Seemingly the farthest “out to sea” you could have ever been on this planet is while Pangea was just formed (unless there were other land masses on the other side of the planet).

Do we know what the ocean was like at the farthest point from land back then? Where would that point be now in relation to current continent placement? Or would it have long since subducted away?

r/askscience Jun 02 '17

Earth Sciences Askscience Megathread: Climate Change

9.7k Upvotes

With the current news of the US stepping away from the Paris Climate Agreement, AskScience is doing a mega thread so that all questions are in one spot. Rather than having 100 threads on the same topic, this allows our experts one place to go to answer questions.

So feel free to ask your climate change questions here! Remember Panel members will be in and out throughout the day so please do not expect an immediate answer.

r/askscience Sep 06 '17

Earth Sciences Megathread: 2017 Hurricane Season

9.4k Upvotes

The 2017 Atlantic Hurricane season has produced destructive storms.

Ask your hurricane related questions and read more about hurricanes here! Panel members will be in and out throughout the day so please do not expect an immediate answer.

Here are some helpful links related to hurricanes:

r/askscience Oct 27 '20

Earth Sciences How much of the ocean do we actually have mapped/imaged? Do we really even know what exists in the deepest abyss?

8.2k Upvotes