Carolyn Gramling
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Writer at Science News. I write about geology and climate and oceanography and paleontology and I like Tom Weller (pic).
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Articles by Carolyn Gramling
Kilauea’s display is revealing why volcanoes spew like a fountain show
Kilauea has been erupting almost continuously for nearly 200 years, and volcanologists have seen a lot of sides to Hawaii’s most active volcano. But in the last year, Kilauea started doing something new: firing up frequent fountains of lava. The volcano’s fountain era kicked off at dawn on December 23, 2024, with an eruption inside the summit crater of Halema’uma’u. Since then, Kilauea has put on a recurring pyrotechnic display of lava fountains, researchers report October 8 in Science.
Analyze This: Even as Earth’s oceans warm, one spot has gone cold
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Are major ocean currents moving to turn Earth into a snowball?
Share this: Share via email (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on X (Opens in new window) X Share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest Share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Share to Google Classroom (Opens in new window) Google Classroom Print (Opens in new window) Print One of Earth’s most vital ocean currents is rapidly weakening. The cause: global warming.
A modern ‘snowball’ Earth? What the movies get wrong
Share this: Share via email (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on X (Opens in new window) X Share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest Share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Share to Google Classroom (Opens in new window) Google Classroom Print (Opens in new window) Print Earth has frozen over in the past — at least five times. Science fiction is full of takes about how it might happen again and the implications of a modern ice age.
Tiny tremors can’t always warn when fracking will trigger a bigger quake
Tiny seismic rumbles can warn that human activities such as fracking are putting enough stress on underground faults to trigger a larger earthquake. Analyses of a decade of seismic data from Alberta’s Western Canada Sedimentary Basin shows that 92 percent of earthquakes induced by fracking were preceded by smaller foreshocks, researchers report August 27 in Science. But there are many lingering uncertainties about why and how these foreshocks occur, the team notes.
‘Thunderquakes’ do more than shake the ground — they map it
“Thunderquakes” ho! Using intense sound waves generated by thunder, scientists created maps of the shallow geology beneath a large U.S. university. Geophysicist Tieyuan Zhu of Penn State and colleagues analyzed two and a half years of seismic signals detected by fiber-optic cables beneath its University Park campus, including more than 450 thunderquakes.
These mammal ancestors birthed live young far earlier than thought
Mammal ancestors may have made the evolutionary leap from egg-laying to live birth at least 90 million years earlier than thought. Growth rings within fossil bones from an adult Chiniquodon theotonicus, a species of cynodont that lived around 236 million years ago, reveal that the animal was relatively large when it was a baby, researchers report August 13 in Frontiers in Mammal Science.
What’s to blame for Canada’s wildfires?
Canada is on fire. Over 190 wildfires raging in Ontario in July have so far burned more than 735,000 hectares of boreal, or subarctic, forest. And the thick smoke from those blazes smothered the U.S. Midwest and East Coast for days with thick plumes of hazardous haze. A similar scenario happened in 2023, when smoke from a devastating, record-breaking fire year in Canada also turned some U.S. city skylines orange.
A ‘super’ El Niño appears to be emerging. What’s the big deal?
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Can geoengineering blunt El Niño’s fury?
There might be a way to geoengineer El Niño so that it wreaks less havoc, scientists say. Adding aerosols to the atmosphere over a particular patch of the Pacific Ocean can increase and brighten clouds in the region, creating a cooling effect. New computer simulations show this can trigger atmospheric changes that might reduce the strength of an El Niño event — and the weather extremes that come along with it, researchers report July 8 in Science Advances.
Deeply plowing farm fields can do more harm than good
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A ‘Super El Niño’ may be on the way. What does that mean?
El Niño is here. And buckle up for a bumpy ride, scientists say: By the end of 2026, this might become the strongest El Niño on record. On June 11, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed that Earth has officially entered the “warm” El Niño phase of a roughly two- to seven-year ocean-climate pattern known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO.
The North Atlantic’s ‘cold blob’ may signal a major current’s decline
Earth’s oceans are heating up, but one patch in the North Atlantic has cooled by about 1 degree Celsius since the 19th century. Scientists now think they know why: The “cold blob” is the result of slowing ocean heat transport in the Atlantic, researchers report in the June 16 Geophysical Research Letters.
The outlook for a climate-regulating ocean current is…not good
One of Earth’s most vital ocean currents is rapidly weakening in response to global warming. Its collapse could send devastating ripples through the planet’s climate system. The potential consequences of the shutdown of this current, called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, are wide-ranging. The AMOC moves warm surface waters from the tropics northward toward Europe, ferrying a massive amount of heat.
AI-powered whale-spotting tech may help save San Francisco Bay’s gray whales Original
An AI-powered monitoring system could save the lives of gray whales that are increasingly taking a deadly detour into California’s heavily trafficked San Francisco Bay. The new technology combines round-the-clock thermal cameras deployed at different locations in the bay with AI to detect whales that may be as far as 7 kilometers away. Once the whale detection is confirmed by scientists, an alert goes out to warn vessels in the area to slow down or change course to avoid a collision.
Antarctic plants may face a growing fungal threat from warming soils
Global warming will expand the tiny Antarctic plant community. But it could also foster pathogenic fungi in soils that might kill those plants. Analyses of soil samples from southern Chile to the Antarctic Peninsula reveal that fungi that prey on plants grow more abundant and diverse with higher air temperature, researchers report in the May Global Change Biology. By 2100, the team says, projected warming could double the occurrence of those fungi in some coastal Antarctic soils.
Emperor penguins are on the march — toward extinction
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Space junk falls back to Earth faster as sunspot numbers climb
Strong solar activity can nudge space debris orbiting Earth out of the sky. As solar cycles reach their peak — signaled by numbers of sunspots appearing on the sun’s surface — satellites and other objects in low Earth orbit lose altitude more quickly, researchers report May 6 in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences. Understanding the sun’s role in orbital decay could be a boon to space operations planning, the team says.
Emperor penguins are marching toward extinction. Antarctica fur seals too
Emperor penguins have braved cold, storms, starvation and predation to breed, ensuring their population survives. But climate change might defeat the iconic Antarctic birds. On April 9, the largest of all penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) were officially moved from threatened to endangered status by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Mummified reptile hints at the origins of how we breathe
The mummified remains of of a land-dwelling vertebrate are helping to reveal how early ancient reptiles began to take a breath with their whole chests — the breathing style used by modern reptiles, birds and mammals. The two new specimens of a small, lizardlike reptile called Captorhinus were found in an Oklahoma cave system. Captorhinus was less than a meter long, perhaps the size of a bearded dragon.
Heavy soil tilling for agriculture can do more harm than good
For thousands of years, humans have prepared to plant by tilling, overturning the soil to manage moisture, airflow and nutrients. But modern agriculture’s deep plowing and heavy machinery do more harm than good, by disrupting the natural pathways through which water infiltrates, researchers report March 19 in Science. Breaking down that network isn’t just counterproductive to growing crops, the team says: It also makes the soil less resilient to flooding and drought.
How realistic is Project Hail Mary ?
Two science journalists walked into a movie theater. That’s us: molecular biology reporter Tina Hesman Saey and Carolyn Gramling, who writes about climate and earth science. We braved the aftermath of a big snowstorm in Washington, D.C., to get a sneak peek of Project Hail Mary, a film adaptation of a book by science fiction author Andy Weir. The film follows middle school science teacher Ryland Grace, played by Ryan Gosling, who wakes up on a spaceship light-years from Earth.
To make a ‘Snowball Earth,’ sci-fi moves fast. Geology is far slower
Here are some ways the world might end in ice, according to science fiction. Earth freezes. Humankind’s remnants huddle in ice caves, fending off giant alien monsters (Snowball Earth). Or people shelter in the New York Public Library as ice encases the Empire State Building (The Day After Tomorrow). Or a train hurtles in an endless loop, both protection and prison for Earth’s scant survivors (Snowpiercer). These stories are all set in Earth’s near future, within a decade from now.
A large fossil leg bone hints at T. rex’s origins, but scientists disagree
When it comes to identifying fossil species, a lone leg bone isn’t much to go on. Yet a new analysis of a large fossil tibia suggests it offers a clue to the origins of Tyrannosaurus rex, the hulking, sharp-toothed apex predator that dominated the twilight of the Age of Dinosaurs. The bone’s sheer size hints that it was a tyrannosaurid, a group that includes the most massive members of the tyrannosaur family tree, researchers claim in a study published March 12 in Scientific Reports.
Volcanic ash might have helped spread the Black Death to Europe
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Halting irreversible changes to Antarctica depends on choices made today
The Antarctic Peninsula is an early warning system for the southernmost continent when it comes to climate change. And the prognostications are grim — but it’s not yet too late to avoid irreversible changes, researchers report February 20 in Frontiers in Environmental Science.
A long-lost tectonic fragment may be shaking Northern California
An earthquake-generating chunk of tectonic plate has been discovered beneath Northern California. It’s attached to the bottom of the North American plate like gum stuck to a shoe. Using abundant, tiny, nearly imperceptible earthquakes that can help reveal complicated faults beneath Earth’s surface, researchers have identified this previously hidden hazard. The plate may have been the source of the 1992 magnitude 7.2 Mendocino earthquake, researchers report January 15 in Science.
Earth's last 3 years were its hottest on record
The last three years were the hottest on record, a new analysis of global climate data finds. They also mark the first three-year period in which the global average temperature exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels — a threshold associated with increased risks to biodiversity, human health and weather extremes.
Newfound fossil is not a teen T. rex but a whole new species
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These fossil finds shed new light on the past in 2025
Everything old is new again: These paleontological discoveries of 2025 — from tiny dinosaurs to zombifying fungi — opened up brand-new insights into the distant past. Nanotyrannus came into its own in 2025. The diminutive dinosaur may have resembled Tyrannosaurus rex, but it wasn’t just a teenage version of the iconic dino, scientists reported in two separate studies.
An underwater volcano off Oregon didn’t erupt in 2025 after all. Why not?
NEW ORLEANS — One year ago, scientists made a surprisingly concrete prediction: Before 2025 was out, they said, Axial volcano — a submerged seamount near Oregon in the Northern Pacific Ocean — would erupt. That hasn’t happened. But it still might — in 2026. Scientists haven’t yet come up with a reliable way to forecast a volcanic eruption, particularly not months or years in advance. Last year, researchers hoped they’d identified the right pattern of data to anticipate Axial’s eruption.
Early Earth's belly held onto its water
Early Earth got much of its water from relentless bombardment by water-rich asteroids and icy comets. Now, scientists say the young planet had a way to hold onto much more of that water than once thought: Rocks deep in Earth’s belly may have contained up to 100 times more water than previously estimated, researchers report December 11 in Science. That adds up to perhaps a whole ocean’s worth of water once stowed away in the ancient mantle rocks.
Global coral die-offs signal Earth’s first climate tipping point
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Nanotyrannus is still not a teenage T. rex
Let the record show: In 2025, one of paleontology’s oldest debates was settled. A second study in as many months confirms — using an independent and novel analysis — that the the tiny tyrannosaur Nanotyrannus is indeed its own species and not a young T. rex. A mysterious fossil skull of a small, sharp-toothed dinosaur, unearthed in the 1940s, is at the heart of the controversy. Researchers have debated for decades what kind of dinosaur the skull belonged to.
A volcanic eruption might have helped bring the Black Plague to Europe
An erupting volcano may have kicked off a chain of events that led to the swift dance of the Black Plague across Europe in the 14th century, in a pandemic that killed tens of millions of people. New analyses of tree ring data, ice cores and historical accounts suggest that a powerful volcanic eruption somewhere in the tropics around 1345 sent clouds of ash around the world, darkening the skies over Europe, researchers report December 4 in Communications Earth & Environment.
Here are 3 big ideas to combat climate change, with or without COP
Belém, Brazil — The Amazon rainforest is a poster child for the perils of climate change. Deforestation and warming temperatures threaten to push the iconic forest past its limits. So Belém, in the heart of the Amazon, was a momentous place for global climate leaders to meet on the 10th anniversary of an international pledge to try to rein in climate change.
Deep-sea mining might feed plankton a diet of junk food
Mining the seafloor for valuable metals could send dangerous ripples through ocean food webs. Tiny floating plankton, the base of the food web, can accidentally ingest particles of sediment kicked up by deep-sea mining operations — forgoing more nutritious food of similar size, researchers report November 6 in Nature Communications. That could trigger a bottom-up starvation cascade, even up to large marine predators, the team says.
Nanotyrannus was not a teenaged T. rex
For decades, researchers have debated whether a fossil of a small, fierce theropod belonged to a teenaged Tyrannosaurus rex or was a separate species. Now they know: Nanotyrannus can stand on its own two feet. The tiny tyrannosaur wasn’t just a younger T. rex, scientists report October 30 in Nature. An exquisitely preserved skeleton of a small tyrannosaur from Montana’s 67-million-year-old Hell Creek formation can end the debate, researchers say.
Hurricane Melissa spins into a monster storm as it bears down on Jamaica
With winds whirling at about 290 kilometers per hour, Hurricane Melissa is one of the strongest ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean — and is poised to become the strongest storm ever to make landfall in Jamaica. It’s also a huge storm, with hurricane-force winds extending over 70 kilometers from its core. Hours before official landfall, heavy rains and battering winds had already begun to lash the island.
Australia’s tropical forests now emit CO₂, clouding the COP30 talks
Australia’s tropical forests are the world’s first to flip a worrisome switch. The forests are now putting more carbon into the atmosphere than they are taking out, researchers report in the Oct. 16 Nature. That switch is a clanging alarm bell for the planet’s tropical forests, sounding as world leaders prepare to gather in the heart of the Amazon rainforest to wrangle over how to address the crisis of global climate change.
Coffee beans pooped out by civets really are tastier. Here's why
The world’s most prized coffee comes from partially digested beans pooped out by the Asian palm civet. Now, researchers are delving into why this “civet coffee” is so tasty. New chemical analyses of beans collected from civet poop, alongside beans picked directly from the coffee plants, suggest that fermentation in the civet’s innards does add a little something extra to the coffee’s flavor, including amping up the fat content and the concentrations of certain aromatic compounds.
Coffee beans pooped out by civets really are tastier. Here’s why
Coffee beans pooped out by civets really are tastier. Here’s why Pricey civet coffee gets its cred from its journey through the mammal’s gut, which changes the content of fat, protein, fatty acids — and even …
Baby pterosaurs likely died in violent Jurassic storms
biology: The study of living things. The scientists who study them are known as biologists. carcass: The body of a dead animal. colleague: Someone who works with another; a co-worker or team member. coral: Marine animals that often produce a hard and stony exoskeleton and tend to live on reefs (the exoskeletons of dead ancestor corals). dinosaur: A term that means terrible lizard. These reptiles emerged around 243 million years ago. All descended from egg-laying reptiles known as archosaurs.
Coral collapse signals Earth's first climate tipping point
The planet has officially passed its first climate tipping point. Relentlessly rising heat in the oceans has now pushed corals around the world past their limit, causing an unprecedented die-off of global reefs and threatening the livelihoods of nearly a billion people, scientists say in a new report published October 13.
Antarctic krill eject more food when it’s contaminated with plastic
Euphausia superba, the Southern Ocean’s ubiquitous krill species, sequester large amounts of carbon via their profuse poop. Now, scientists have identified another way in which the swimming crustaceans may modulate Earth’s climate: by sending their leftovers down to the bottom of the sea.
Two of Greece’s most dangerous volcanoes share an underground link
An intense swarm of earthquakes around Greece’s Santorini Island in January has revealed a fiery underground link between two neighboring and historically explosive volcanoes. Analyses of seismic activity from June 2024 through February 2025, along with changes in the island’s surface elevation, suggest that the same well of magma feeding the Santorini volcano may also supply the submerged Kolumbo volcano, just seven kilometers away, researchers report September 24 in Nature.
This ‘megaflash’ is now the longest lightning bolt on record
cloud: A plume of molecules or particles, such as water droplets, that move under the action of an outside force, such as wind, radiation or water currents. (in atmospheric science) A mass of airborne water droplets and ice crystals that travel as a plume, usually high in Earth’s atmosphere. Its movement is driven by winds. data: Facts and/or statistics collected together for analysis but not necessarily organized in a way that gives them meaning.
Crystallized dino eggs provide a peek into the tumultuous Late Cretaceous
Crystals hidden inside dinosaur eggs at a famous fossil site are giving scientists a chance to do something that’s long proven elusive: figure out how old the ancient nests really are. Finding these fossilized eggs’ true shelf life makes it possible to connect large-scale changes in climate to tiny shifts in the structure of eggshells, the researchers report September 11 in Frontiers in Earth Science. That, in turn, offers a new way to assess the ancient environments in which the dinosaurs nested.
Young pterosaurs probably died in violent Jurassic storms Original
The broken wings of two young pterosaurs may reveal how hundreds of their kind met their end about 150 million years ago. New analyses of the well-preserved, complete Pterodactylus fossils — dubbed “Lucky I” and “Lucky II” — show that a humerus bone in each hatchling had been cleanly fractured at an oblique angle. This indicates that their arms were wrenched in a powerful twisting motion, researchers report September 5 in Current Biology.
It's been 20 years since Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Is the U.S. better prepared?
In late August 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated the U.S. Gulf Coast. The storm cut a deadly swath through Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, deluging coastal towns as surges of ocean water swept relentlessly ashore, driven by powerful winds. The sheer force of the surging waters overpowered levees meant to protect low-lying New Orleans from floodwaters; the levees failed, and about 80 percent of the city was inundated.
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