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The solar system has one star, eight planets, five dwarf planets, at least 290 moons, more than 1.3 million asteroids, and about 3,900 comets. It is located in an outer spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy called the Orion Arm, or Orion Spur. Our solar system orbits the center of the galaxy at about 515,000 mph (828,000 kph). It takes about 230 million years to complete one orbit around the galactic center.

We call it the solar system because it is made up of our star, the Sun, and everything bound to it by gravity - the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune; dwarf planets Pluto, Ceres, Makemake, Haumea, and Eris - along with hundreds of moons; and millions of asteroids, comets, and meteoroids.

Our Daily Skywatching Guide

A detailed guide to the night sky written by a NASA expert featuring full Moon lore, asteroid flybys, stars, galaxies, constellations, and more.
Learn More

10 THINGS about our solar system

Saying Farewell: Which Spacecraft are Leaving Our Solar System?

Only two spacecraft have reached interstellar space, the space between stars. Three other spacecraft have achieved enough velocity to eventually travel beyond the boundaries of our solar system.

Voyager 1 went interstellar in 2012 and Voyager 2 joined it in 2018. Both spacecraft, launched in 1977, are still in communication with Earth.

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is currently exploring an icy region beyond Neptune called the Kuiper Belt. It eventually will leave our solar system.

Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 also will ultimately travel silently among the stars toward the galactic core. The spacecraft used up their power supplies decades ago.

Discover More Topics From NASA

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The solar system has one star, eight planets, five dwarf planets, at least 290 moons, more than 1.3 million asteroids, and about 3,900 comets.

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Scale of Universe is an interactive experience to inspire people to learn about the vast ranges of the visible and invisible world.

Click on objects to learn more.

Use the scroll bar to zoom in and out.

Start Exploring

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Scale of the Universe: Discover the vast ranges of our visible and invisible world.

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Scale of Universe is an interactive experience to inspire people to learn about the vast ranges of the visible and invisible world.

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Crash Course: Earth's Rotation and Revolution

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Crash Course: Earth's Rotation and Revolution

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Earth's Rotation & Revolution: Crash Course Kids 8.1

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How do celestial bodies warp the fabric of space-time and interact with each other?

Create an object to begin exploring.

This experiment works best in Chrome, Firefox, or Safari. Download the latest version of one of these browsers to begin.

Create your universe Download Chrome

National Science & Technology Medals Foundation Powered By

National Science & Technology Medals Foundation Powered By

Press and hold to create an object

Press, hold, and flick to add velocity

Observations

Runaway planet! That object's velocity is faster than any nearby gravitational force.

How fast does a rocket need to travel to leave Earth? Any projectile must reach a speed of seven miles per second to break free of our planet's gravity.

The gravity on Mars' moon, Deimos, is so low that if you jumped you could reach escape velocity!

Your object attained escape velocity. Its initial kinetic energy was large enough to escape from the gravitational energy well of the larger object. Space probes that completely escape from the earth's gravity and travel to other planets are examples of vehicles that achieve escape velocity.

You've created a binary system. These two celestial bodies weave around their common center of mass.

When you look up at the night sky, at least half of all the stars you see are binary stars orbiting one another.

You created an orbit. Orbits are like the Goldilocks of space, set in motion only when mass, distance, and velocity are just right. Orbits or often circular or elliptical. The earth's orbit around the sun, for example, deviates less than 2% from a circle.

Communications satellites aren't the only man-made objects orbiting Earth. Astronauts have left behind tools, gloves, and other space junk that might still be floating around.

Typically comets have elliptical orbits. These "dirty snowballs" come from the outer edge of the solar system, pass near the sun where they start to melt and produce a long tail, then return to the edge of the solar system where they refreeze.

Your object failed to attain escape velocity. Its initial kinetic energy was too little to escape from the gravitational energy well of the larger object. Rockets and missiles that return to earth are examples of vehicles that do not achieve escape velocity.

During the early days of our solar system, there were lots of collisions. The scattered debris mostly formed back together or attached to planets.

Don't worry. Nowadays our solar system is stable, and planets are unlikely to collide. However, you still need to watch for dangerous asteroids!

Some collisions don't break things apart but leave impact craters. Mars has been shaped by impact. Its northern half is smooth and low, its southern half mountainous and rough -- so different they're like two separate planets!

According to Newton, the larger the mass of objects and the shorter the distance between them, the stronger the attraction.

Objects move proportionately to their mass. Tiny planets move great distances. Massive planets may only wobble.

When slow-moving celestial bodies collide, they might fuse together and enlarge, increasing from a few kilometers to a few hundred kilometers in diameter.

Earth-like planets begin as particles formed from the collision of gas and dust and grow by accretion. A mature planet can take thousands or even millions of years to form.

Notice how the universe distorts when a object forms or grows in size? According to Einstein, all celestial bodies warp the fabric of space-time. The resulting curves are gravity.

Two celestial bodies of different masses have distinct effects upon space-time. A massive object creates a greater distortion of space-time and can shift the path of smaller objects if they're close enough.

Gravity penetrates everything and holds the galaxy together.

Everything in the universe - moons, planets, particles, galaxies, even light - is drawn towards everything else by the force of gravity.

Your planetary collision has created a moon, or natural satellite. Moons can be anywhere from centimeters to thousands of kilometers in width.

Over 4 billion years ago, something the size of Mars bumped into Earth and left behind the moon that orbits us.

Moons can also be captured by a hefty planet's gravitational pull. The largest irregular moon in our solar system is thought to be Neptune's moon, Triton, which originated in the Kuiper belt of comets.

Orbit shapes are typically ellipses. Orbiting objects zip towards a gravitational center and slow when pulling away.

An orbit system is a gravitationally-bound collection of celestial bodies.

The Sun is the center of planetary orbit in our solar system. But each planet has its own gravitational field, and most have their own natural satellites.

How do celestial bodies warp the fabric of space-time and interact with each other?

We tend think of gravity as a force of attraction, but it's also been described as a curvature of space-time in the presence of mass. This National Science and Technology Medals Foundation interactive invites you to bend the fabric of space-time and observe the resulting gravitational forces. By adjusting the variables of mass, distance, and velocity, you can trigger orbits, collisions, and escape velocities in space.

The National Science and Technology Medals Foundation celebrates the amazing individuals who have won the highest science, technology, engineering, and mathematics award in the United States.

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How do celestial bodies warp the fabric of space-time and interact with each other? Create an object to begin exploring. This experiment works best in Chrome, Firefox, or Safari. Download the latest version of one of these browsers to begin.

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Interact with the variables to discover how planetary objects moves in elliptical orbits, and the other characteristics of these orbits described by the three Kepler's Laws. Connect Astronomy with Math, by experimenting with ellipses, areas, and graphs.

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Build your own system of heavenly bodies and watch the gravitational ballet. With this orbit simulator, you can set initial positions, velocities, and masses of 2, 3, or 4 bodies, and then see them orbit each other.

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The Sun and Planets to Scale

&nbsp

1 pixel = 1000 kilometers

The apparent brightnesses of the planets cover too wide a range to depict accurately. This picture gives an idea of their relative brightnesses due to differences in size, color, and reflectivity, but not due to distance from the Earth or Sun. Only the largest moons and asteroids are shown.

&nbsp Equatorial &nbsp &nbsp Mean &nbsp &nbsp Escape &nbsp Rotation &nbsp Incl. &nbsp Visual

Diam. (km) Oblateness Mass Density Gravity (km/s) Period (days) (deg.) Albedo

Earth 12,756 1/298 1 5.52 1 11 .2 0 .9973 23 .4 0.37

Moons &nbsp Mass relative to Earth's mass, which is 5.974 x 10²⁴ kg.

Asteroids &nbsp Gravity and escape speed at the pole, at the visible surface.

Kuiper Belt Objects &nbsp Inclination of the equator relative to the plane of the orbit.

Comets * &nbsp The Sun's surface rotates faster at the equator than at the poles.

** &nbsp At the equator, where Jupiter's atmosphere rotates fastest.

The above table in plain text

&nbsp To my Space and Science home page&nbsp for more about the Solar System

&nbsp &nbsp Jeff Root
&nbsp &nbsp September 4, 2003

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The Sun and Planets to Scale &nbsp 1 pixel = 1000 kilometers The apparent brightnesses of the planets cover too wide a range to depict accurately. This picture gives an idea of their relative brightnesses due to differences in size, color, and reflectivity, but not due to distance from the Earth or Sun.

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If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel - A tediously accurate map of the solar system

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Google Arts and Culture: NASA's Visual Universe

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Google Arts and Culture: NASA's Visual Universe

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To celebrate 60 years of NASA and 50 years of Project Apollo, the Google Arts & Culture Lab has created NASA's Visual Universe - an experiment drawing on NASA's vast image archive.

Using NASA's public API, we explored 127,000 historic images stretching back to 1915, and analyzed them using machine learning - bringing surprising and interactive results.

We especially used Google Cloud Natural Language to extract keywords and information from the archive.

Explore NASA's rich history of discoveries, missions, and science, search a term, and discover more about the world's favorite space agency.

For more information on NASA and its missions, visit www.nasa.gov.

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To celebrate 60 years of NASA and 50 years of Project Apollo, the Google Arts & Culture Lab has created NASA's Visual Universe - an experiment drawing on NASA's vast image archive. Using NASA's public API, we explored 127,000 historic images stretching back to 1915, and analyzed them using machine learning - bringing surprising and interactive results.

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The Zooniverse is the world’s largest and most popular platform for people-powered research.

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Children and adults around the world love gazing at the stars, connecting the dots to form shapes they have been told about or creating their own. But these collections likely originated as important instruments to help people mark the time of year. Today, star constellations continue to stand as tools for astronomers and stargazers.

History of constellations

Stars move across the sky on a regular schedule, much like the sun. At various times of year, different constellations appear at sunset. The rising constellations rotate based on the Earth's path through space, and so can be used to mark the seasons in regions when moderate weather may not convey the change between winter and spring.

Most of the constellations in the northern skies bear Greek and Roman names, but people were mapping the sky long before these empires took hold. The Greeks adopted their system from the Babylonians, whose origins may have stemmed from Sumerian traditions 3,000 years before. Even further back, scientists suspect that markings on the cave walls at Lascaux in southern France - created over 17,000 years ago - may chart the Pleiades and Hyades star clusters, making it the first known star map.

In 1929, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) officially defined 88 constellations across the sky. But these constellations aren't drawn to connect certain stars, they're actually more-or-less rectangular slices of the heavens holding the stars within them. Formally cementing these boundaries allows astronomers to communicate about the regions of the sky they study. Within these 88 regions are the individual groupings that people think of as constellations. For instance, the constellation of Ursa Major contains all of the stars around the shape known by the same name.

However, many of the groupings most people consider to be constellations aren't officially constellations. The Big Dipper, for example, which lays inside of Ursa Major, is not recognized as a constellation. Instead, it is an asterism, or a group of stars not officially designated but known by most nonastronomers.

Constellation names and zodiac signs

As the Earth rotates, the sun, the moon and planets travel on a set path through the sky known as the ecliptic. The list of 13 constellations they pass through are known as the stars of the zodiac. The zodiac constellations' names are:

Astrologers use 12 of these constellations as signs of the zodiac, omitting Ophiuchus, to make predictions. (Unlike astronomy, astrology is not a science.) Signs differ from constellations, bearing only a loose reference to one another. The sign of Pisces, for instance, corresponds to the rise of the constellation of Aquarius. Ironically, if you are born under a particular sign, the constellation it is named for is not visible at night. Instead, the sun is passing through it around that time of year, making it a daytime constellation that can't be seen. [ How the Constellations Got Their Names]

The constellations appear to form shapes across the sky, but the stars themselves don't make up patterns in space. The distance from our world to the individual stars in a constellation varies, often by tens of light-years, scattering the stars randomly across the galaxy.

How far away are constellations?

The pictures we see at night are formed because we only see two dimensions on the night sky, missing the depth that is also present.

Still, with a bit of imagination, the constellations can provide a great source entertainment. They can also help the lost find their way, and aid skywatchers in the search for planets, comets, or other events, by a process called star hopping. And, as they surely did in ancient times, constellations can provoke a sense of timeless wonder.
Related: This article was updated Oct. 9, 2018, by Space.com Senior Writer, Meghan Bartels. Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.

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Constellations: The Zodiac Constellation Names

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Children and adults around the world love gazing at the stars, connecting the dots to form shapes they have been told about or creating their own. But these collections likely originated as important instruments to help people mark the time of year. Today, star constellations continue to stand as tools for astronomers and stargazers.

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Mission Timeline

1961
Mercury Redstone 3 - 5 May 1961 - Earth Suborbital (Shepard)(Grissom)(Glenn)(Carpenter)(Schirra)(Cooper)
1964
1965
Gemini 3 - 23 March 1965 - Earth Orbiter(Grissom, Young)(McDivitt, White)(Cooper, Conrad)(Borman, Lovell)(Schirra, Stafford)(Armstrong, Scott)(Stafford, Cernan)(Young, Collins)(Conrad, Gordon)(Lovell, Aldrin)
1967
1968
Apollo 7 - 11 October 1968 - Earth Orbiter(Schirra, Eisele, Cunningham)(Borman, Lovell, Anders)(McDivitt, Scott, Schweikart)(Stafford, Young, Cernan)(Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins)(Conrad, Bean, Gordon)(Lovell, Haise, Swigert)(Shepard, Mitchell, Roosa)(Scott, Irwin, Worden)(Young, Duke, Mattingly)(Cernan, Schmitt, Evans)

Other Missions

Search for Mission Information

To search for information on any mission, enter the spacecraft name in the box below.

Author/Curator:
Dr. David R. Williams,dave.williams@nasa.gov
NSSDCA, Mail Code 690.1
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, MD 20771
+1-301-286-1258

NASA Official: Dave Williams, david.r.williams@nasa.gov
Last Updated: 12 April 2016, DRW

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1961 Mercury Redstone 3 - 5 May 1961 - Earth Suborbital (Shepard)(Grissom)(Glenn)(Carpenter)(Schirra)(Cooper) 1964 1965 Gemini 3 - 23 March 1965 - Earth Orbiter(Grissom, Young)(McDivitt, White)(Cooper, Conrad)(Borman, Lovell)(Schirra, Stafford)(Armstrong, Scott)(Stafford, Cernan)(Young, Collins)(Conrad, Gordon)(Lovell, Aldrin) 1967 1968 Apollo 7 - 11 October 1968 - Earth Orbiter(Schirra, Eisele, Cunningham)(Borman, Lovell, Anders)(McDivitt, Scott, Schweikart)(Stafford, Young, Cernan)(Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins)(Conrad, Bean, Gordon)(Lovell, Haise, Swigert)(Shepard, Mitchell, Roosa)(Scott, Irwin, Worden)(Young, Duke, Mattingly)(Cernan, Schmitt, Evans) To search for information on any mission, enter the spacecraft name in the box below.

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Hubble's 30th Anniversary of Servicing Mission 1

Celebrate the 30 th anniversary of the mission that brought Hubble's view into focus. Experience the urgency, tension, and resolve through the eyes of seven key figures who helped make the mission a success.

Follow along here and follow @NASAHubble on X, Instagram, and Facebook beginning December 1 st.

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Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.

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Kids learn about astronomy, the study of outer space including the stars, planets, comets, black holes, and the Solar System. History and astronomers in this astronomy for teachers and kids section.

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Most natural disasters are impossible to prevent. The forces of nature that cause them are beyond the control of humans. Their effects, however, may be reduced in several ways: by preparing for natural disasters, by preventing them where possible, and by reducing the impact they have on people.

Preparing for Natural Disasters

Developed countries that suffer from earthquakes, such as Japan and the United States, have buildings that can stand up to all but the most powerful earthquakes. Storm shelters can be built to provide a safe place for people to stay during hurricanes and tornadoes.

The Thames Barrier, in England, was built to protect London from flooding. This type of preparation is less common in developing countries because it can be very expensive.

Preventing Natural Disasters

Natural disasters that occur because of the movement of Earth's plates cannot be prevented, but some others may be preventable. Protecting the environment, for example, may prevent disasters such as avalanches and landslides. Trees on hillsides help keep snow and soil in place. If too many trees are cut down, then avalanches and landslides are more likely to happen. Flooding can be prevented in some places by strengthening a river's edges, building dams, and redirecting floodwater away from towns.

Reducing the Effects of Natural Disasters

The effects of natural disasters can be reduced in two main ways. Warning systems can tell people to prepare for a disaster, and relief agencies can help deal with the problems caused by the disaster.

Sensible planning can also prevent deaths from natural disasters. For example, people can choose not to build towns on the sides of volcanoes, in active earthquake zones, or on floodplains.

Early Warning Systems

Early warning systems can pick up clues that a natural disaster may occur. They can then send a warning message to the people it might affect. Flood and severe weather warning messages are often broadcast on television, radio, and the Internet.

Places at risk of natural disasters often have evacuation plans in place so people can get out of the area before the disaster happens. People are also taught how to cope when disaster strikes, such as keeping supplies of food and water nearby.

Relief Agencies

Relief agencies, such as the Red Cross and Red Crescent and Oxfam, help support the victims of natural disasters. These organizations set up temporary camps; provide food, medical care, and education; and help people rebuild their lives if necessary.

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Natural disasters are violent events that are outside the control of humans. They are caused by the forces of nature and may result in loss of life, injury, and damage to...

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Lots of good videos on this webpage!

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Find lessons on Natural Hazards for all grades. Free interactive resources and activities for the classroom and home.

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Lots of good resources on this webpage!

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Check out the below lessons, activities, and resources on natural hazards education!

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Natural Hazards: Crash Course Geography #27

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Natural Disasters compilation | The Dr. Binocs Show | Best Learning Videos For Kids | Peekaboo Kidz

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We can’t control ’em, but we can be informed and prepared. Tim and Moby talk hurricane, earthquakes, tornadoes and other natural disasters.

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Learn more about the causes and effects of natural disasters.

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Track the latest severe storm activity with CNN's storm tracker.

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Interactive charts on Natural Disasters

The number of deaths from natural disasters can be highly variable from year-to-year; some years pass with very few deaths before a large disaster event claims many lives.

If we look at the average over the past decade, approximately 45,000 people globally died from natural disasters each year. This represents around 0.1% of global deaths.

In the visualizations shown here we see the annual variability in the number and share of deaths from natural disasters in recent decades.

What we see is that in many years, the number of deaths can be very low - often less than 10,000, and accounting for as low as 0.01% of total deaths. But we also see the devastating impact of shock events: the 1983-85 famine and drought in Ethiopia; the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami; Cyclone Nargis which struck Myanmar in 2008; and the 2010 Port-au-Prince earthquake in Haiti. All of these events pushed global disasters deaths over 200,000 - more than 0.4% of deaths in these years.

Low-frequency, high-impact events such as earthquakes and tsunamis are not preventable, but such high losses of human life are. We know from historical data that the world has seen a significant reduction in disaster deaths through earlier prediction, more resilient infrastructure, emergency preparedness, and response systems.

Those at low incomes are often the most vulnerable to disaster events: improving living standards, infrastructure and response systems in these regions will be key to preventing deaths from natural disasters in the coming decades.

Globally, over the past decade, natural disasters accounted for an average of 0.1% of total deaths. This was, however, highly variable to high-impact events and ranged from 0.01% to 0.4% of total deaths.

In the map shown here you can explore these trends by country over the past few decades. Using the timeline on the chart you can observe changes across the world over time, or by clicking on a country you can see its individual trend.

What we observe is that for most countries the share of deaths from natural disasters are very low in most years. Often it can be zero - with no loss of life to disasters - or well below 0.01%. But we also see clearly the effects of low-frequency but high-impact events: in 2010, more than 70% of deaths in Haiti were the result of the Port-au-Prince earthquake.

Number of deaths from natural disasters

Annual deaths from natural disasters

In the visualization shown here we see the long-term global trend in natural disaster deaths. This shows the estimated annual number of deaths from disasters from 1900 onwards from the EMDAT International Disaster Database.¹

What we see is that in the early-to-mid 20th century, the annual death toll from disasters was high, often reaching over one million per year. In recent decades we have seen a substantial decline in deaths. In most years fewer than 20,000 die (and in the most recent decade, this has often been less than 10,000). Even in peak years with high-impact events, the death toll has not exceeded 500,000 since the mid-1960s.

This decline is even more impressive when we consider the rate of population growth over this period. When we correct for population - showing this data in terms of death rates (measured per 100,000 people) - we see an even greater decline over the past century. This chart can be viewed here.

The annual number of deaths from natural disasters is also available by country since 1990. This can be explored in the interactive map.

Average number of deaths by decade

In the chart we show global deaths from natural disasters since 1900, but rather than reporting annual deaths, we show the annual average by decade.

As we see, over the course of the 20th century there was a significant decline in global deaths from natural disasters. In the early 1900s, the annual average was often in the range of 400,000 to 500,000 deaths. In the second half of the century and into the early 2000s, we have seen a significant decline to less than 100,000 - at least five times lower than these peaks.

This decline is even more impressive when we consider the rate of population growth over this period. When we correct for population - showing this data in terms of death rates (measured per 100,000 people) - then we see a more than 10-fold decline over the past century. This chart can be viewed here.

Number of deaths by type of natural disaster

With almost minute-by-minute updates on what's happening in the world, we are constantly reminded of the latest disaster. These stories are, of course, important but they do not give us a sense of how the toll of disasters has changed over time.

For most of us, it is hard to know whether any given year was a particularly deadly one in the context of previous years.

To understand the devastating toll of disasters today, and in the past, we have built a Natural Disasters Data Explorer which provides estimates of fatalities, displacement and economic damage for every country since 1900. This is based on data sourced from EM-DAT; a project that undertakes the important work of building these incredibly detailed histories of disasters.²

In this visualization I give a sense of how the global picture has evolved over the last century. It shows the estimated annual death toll - from all disasters at the top, followed by a breakdown by type. The size of the bubble represents the total death toll for that year.

I've labeled most of the years with the largest death tolls. This usually provokes the follow-up question: "Why? What event happened?". So I've also noted large-scale events that contributed to the majority - but not necessarily all - of the deaths in that year.

For example, the estimated global death toll from storms in 2008 was approximately 141,000. 138,366 of these deaths occurred in Cyclone Margis, which struck Myanmar, and is labeled on the chart.

What we see is that in the 20th century, it was common to have years where the death toll was in the millions. This was usually the result of major droughts or floods. Often these would lead to famines. My colleague Joe Hasell looks at the long history of famines here.

Improved food security, resilience to other disasters, and better national and international responses mean that the world has not experienced death tolls of this scale in many decades. Famines today are usually driven by civil war and political unrest.

In most years, the death toll from disasters is now in the range of 10,000 to 20,000 people. In the most fatal years - which tend to be those with major earthquakes or cyclones - this can reach tens to hundreds of thousands.

This trend does not mean that disasters have become less frequent, or less intense. It means the world today is much better at preventing deaths from disasters than in the past. This will become increasingly important in our response and adaptation to climate change.

Human impacts from natural disasters are not fully captured in mortality rates. Injury, homelessness, and displacement can all have a significant impact on populations.

The visualisation below shows the number of people displaced internally (i.e. within a given country) from natural disasters. Note that these figures report on the basis of new cases of displaced persons: if someone is forced to flee their home from natural disasters more than once in any given year, they will be recorded only once within these statistics.

Interactive charts on the following global impacts are available using the links below:

Injuries: number of people injured is defined as "People suffering from physical injuries, trauma or an illness requiring immediate medical assistance as a direct result of a disaster."

Homelessness: number of people homeless is defined as "Number of people whose house is destroyed or heavily damaged and therefore need shelter after an event."

Affected: number of people affected is defined as "People requiring immediate assistance during a period of emergency, i.e. requiring basic survival needs such as food, water, shelter, sanitation and immediate medical assistance."

Total number affected: total number of people affected is defined as "the sum of the injured, affected and left homeless after a disaster."

Natural disasters by type

Earthquakes

Earthquake events occur across the world every day. The US Geological Survey (USGS) tracks and reports global earthquakes, with (close to) real-time updates which you can find here.

However, the earthquakes which occur most frequently are often too small to cause significant damage (whether to human life, or in economic terms).

In the chart below we show the long history of known earthquakes classified by the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) of the NOAA as 'significant' earthquakes. Significant earthquakes are those which are large enough to cause notable damage. They must meet at least one of the following criteria: caused deaths, moderate damage ($1 million or more), magnitude 7.5 or greater, Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) X or greater, or generated a tsunami.

Available data - which you can explore in the chart below - extends back to 2150 BC. But we should be aware that most recent records will be much more complete than our long-run historic estimates. An increase in the number of recorded earthquakes doesn't necessarily mean this was the true trend over time. By clicking on a country in the map below, you can view it's full series of known significant earthquakes.

Alongside estimates of the number of earthquake events, the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) of the NOAA also publish estimates of the number of deaths over this long-term series. In the chart below we see the estimated mortality numbers from 2000 BC through to 2017.

These figures can be found for specific countries using the "change country" function in the bottom-left of the chart, or by selecting the "map" on the bottom-right.

At the global level we see that earthquake deaths have been a persistent human risk through time.

The number of people dying in natural disasters is lower today than it was in the past, the world has become more resilient.

Earthquakes, however, can still claim a large number of lives. Whilst historically floods, droughts and epidemics dominated disaster deaths, a high annual death toll now often results from a major earthquake and possibly a tsunami caused by them. Since 2000, the two peak years in annual death tolls (reaching 100s of thousands) were 2004 and 2010. Earthquake deaths accounted for 93 percent and 69 percent of such deaths, respectively. In fact, both events (the Sumatra earthquake and tsunami of 2004, and Port-au-Prince earthquake in 2010) are in the deadliest earthquake rankings below.

What have been the most deadly earthquakes in human history? In the visualization we have mapped the top 10 rankings of known earthquakes which resulted in the largest number of deaths.³ This ranking is based on mortality estimates from the NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC).⁴

Clicking on the visualization will open it in higher-resolution. This ranking is also summarized in table form.

The most deadly earthquake in history was in Shaanxi, China in 1556. It's estimated to have killed 830,000 people. This is more than twice that of the second most fatal: the recent Port-au-Prince earthquake in Haiti in 2010. It's reported that 316,000 people died as a result.⁵

Two very recent earthquakes - the Sumatra earthquake and tsunami of 2004, and 2010 Port-au-Prince earthquake - feature amongst the most deadly in human history. But equally, some of the most fatal occurred in the very distant past. Making the top three was the earthquake in Antakya (Turkey) in the year 115. Both old and very recent feature near the top the list. The deadly nature earthquakes has been a persistent threat throughout our history.

Ranking

Location

Year

Estimated death toll

Earthquake magnitude

Additional information

2

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

2010

316,000

7

Death toll is still disputed. Here we present the adopted figure by the NGDC of the NOAA (for consistency with other earthquakes); this is the figure reported by the Haitian government. Some sources suggest a lower figure of 220,000. In the latter case, this event would fall to 7th place in the above rankings.

3

Antakya, Turkey

115

260,000

7.5

Antioch (ancient ruins which lie near the modern city Antakya) and surrounding areas suffered severe damage. Apamea was also destroyed and Beirut suffered severe damage. A local tsunami was triggered causing damage to the coast of Lebanon.

5

Tangshan, China

1976

242,769

7.5

Reported that the earthquake risk had been greatly underestimated meaning almost all buildings and structures were designed and built without seismic considerations. Estimated that up to 85% of buildings collapsed. Tangshan therefore large comprised of unreinforced brick buildings which resulted in a large death toll.

9

Dvin, Armenia

893

150,000

Unknown

City of Dvin was destroyed, with the collapse of most buildings, defensive walls and palaces; estimated that only 100 buildings were left standing. With its city defences ruined, Dvin was taken over and turned into a military base by Muhammad ibn Abi'l-Saj, the Sajid emir of Adharbayjan.

Volcanoes

There are a large number of volcanoes across the world which are volcanically active, but display little or only very low-level activity.

In the map we see the number of significant volcanic eruptions which occur in each country in a given year. A significant eruption is classified as one that meets at least one of the following criteria: caused fatalities, caused moderate damage (approximately $1 million or more), with a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 6 or larger, caused a tsunami, or was associated with a major earthquake.⁶

Estimates of volcanic eruptions are available dating back as early as 1750 BCE, however, the data completeness for long historic events will be much lower than in the recent past.

In the visualization we see the number of deaths from significant volcanic eruptions across the world. Using the timeline on the map we can see the frequency of volcanic activity deaths over time.

If we look at deaths over the past century we see several high-impact events: the Nevado del Ruiz eruption in Colombia in 1985; the Mount Pelée eruption in Martinique in 1902; and 1883 eruption of Krakatoa in Indonesia.

Landslides

Global landslide mortality risk distribution - SEDAC (NASA)⁷

Famines & Droughts

We cover the history of Famines in detail in our dedicated entry here. For this research we assembled a new global dataset on famines from the 1860s until 2016.

In the visualization shown here we see trends in drought severity in the United States. Given is the annual data of drought severity, plus the 9-year average.

This is measured by the The Palmer Drought Severity Index: the average moisture conditions observed between 1931 and 1990 at a given location is given an index value of zero. A positive value means conditions are wetter than average, while a negative value is drier than average. A value between -2 and -3 indicates moderate drought, -3 to -4 is severe drought, and -4 or below indicates extreme drought.

Hurricanes, Tornados, and Cyclones

Extreme precipitation and flooding

In the visualization shown we see the global precipitation anomaly each year; trends in the US-specific anomaly can be found here.

This precipitation anomaly is measured relative to the century average from 1901 to 2000. Positive values indicate a wetter year than normal; negative values indicate a drier year.

Also shown is US-specific data on the share of land area which experiences unusually high precipitation in any given year.

We can look at precipitation anomalies over the course of year, however, flooding events are often caused by intense rainfall over much shorter periods. Flooding events tend to occur when there is extremely high rainfall over the course of hours or days.

The visualization here shows the extent of extreme one-day precipitation in the US. What we see is a general upwards trend in the extent of extreme rainfall in recent decades.

Extreme Temperature (Heat & Cold)

Extreme temperature risks to human health and mortality can result from both exposure to extreme heat and cold.

In the visualizations shown here we see long-term data on heatwaves and unusually high temperatures in the United States.

Overall we see there is significant year-to-year variability in the extent of heatwave events. What stands out over the past century of data was the 1936 North American heatwave - one of the most extreme heat wave events in modern history, which coincided with the Great Depression and Dust Bowl of the 1930s.

When we look at the trajectory of unusually high summer temperatures over time (defined as 'unusually high' in the context of historical records) we see an upward trend in recent decades.

Wildfires

How are the frequency and extent of wildfires in the United States changing over time?

In the charts below we provide three overviews: the number of wildfires, the total acres burned, and the average acres burned per wildfire. This data is shown from 1983 onwards, when comparable data recording began.

Over the past 30-35 years we notice three general trends in the charts below (although there is significant year-to-year variability):

on average, the annual number of wildfires has not changed much;

on average, the total acres burned has increased from the 1980s and 1990s into the 21st century;

the combination of these two factors suggest that the average acres burned per wildfire has increased.

There has been significant media coverage of the long-run statistics of US wildfires reported by the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC). The original statistics are available back to the year 1926. When we look at this long-term series it suggests there has been a significant decline in acres burned over the past century. However, the NIFC explicitly state:

Prior to 1983, sources of these figures are not known, or cannot be confirmed, and were not derived from the current situation reporting process. As a result the figures prior to 1983 should not be compared to later data.

Representatives from the NIFC have again confirmed (see the Carbon Brief's coverage here) that these historic statistics are not comparable to those since 1983. The lack of reliable methods of measurement and reporting mean some historic statistics may in fact be double or triple-counted in national statistics.

This means we cannot compare the recent data below with old, historic records. But it also doesn't confirm that acres burned today are higher than the first half of the 20th century. Historically, fires were an often-used method of clearing land for agriculture, for example. It's not implausible to expect that wildfires of the past may have been larger than today but the available data is not reliable enough to confirm this.

Lightning

World map of frequency of lightning strikes - Wikipedia (NASA data)⁸

Global disaster costs

Natural disasters not only have devastating impacts in terms of the loss of human life, but can also cause severe destruction with economic costs.

When we look at global economic costs over time in absolute terms we tend to see rising costs. But, importantly, the world - and most countries - have also gotten richer. Global gross domestic product has increased more than four-fold since 1970. We might therefore expect that for any given disaster, the absolute economic costs could be higher than in the past.

A more appropriate metric to compare economic costs over time is to look at them in relation to GDP. This is the indicator adopted by all countries as part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals to monitor progress on resilience to disaster costs.

In the chart, we see global direct disaster losses given as a share of GDP.

Disaster costs by country

Since economic losses from disasters in relation to GDP is the indicator adopted by all countries within the UN Sustainable Development Goals, this data is also now reported for each country.

The map shows direct disaster costs for each country as a share of its GDP. Here we see large variations by country - a 100-fold difference ranging from less than 0.05% to 5%. This data can be found in absolute terms here.

How many deaths does it take for a natural disaster to be newsworthy?

This is a question researchers Thomas Eisensee and David Strömberg asked in a 2007 study.⁹

The two authors found that for every person killed by a volcano, nearly 40,000 people have to die of a food shortage to get the same probability of coverage in US televised news.¹⁰

In other words, the type of disaster matters to how newsworthy networks find it to be. The visualizations show the extent of this observed "news effect". The chart shows the proportion of each type of disaster that receives news coverage, and the second shows the "casualties ratio", which tells us-all else equal-how many casualties would make media coverage equally likely for each type of disaster.

The study, which primarily set out to examine mass media's influence on US natural disaster response, considered over 5,000 natural disasters¹¹ and 700,000 news stories from the major US national broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN) between 1968 and 2002.

The findings tells us, among other important things, that networks tend to be selective in their coverage and attention is not reflecting the severity and number of people killed or affected by a natural disaster.

Instead of considering the objective damage caused by natural disasters, networks tend to look for disasters that are "rife with drama", as one New York Times article put it¹²-hurricanes, tornadoes, forest fires, earthquakes all make for splashy headlines and captivating visuals.

Thanks to this selectivity, less "spectacular" but often times more deadly natural disasters tend to get passed over. Food shortages, for example, result in the most casualties and affect the most people per incident¹³ but their onset is more gradual than that of a volcanic explosion or sudden earthquake. As a result, food shortages are covered only 3% of the time while a comparatively indulgent 30% of earthquakes and volcanic events get their time in the spotlight.

Additionally, when the researchers "hold all else equal" by controlling for factors such as yearly trends in news intensity and the number of people killed and affected, the difference in coverage is even more pronounced.

This bias for the spectacular is not only unfair and misleading, but also has the potential to misallocate attention and aid. Disasters that happen in an instant leave little time for preventative intervention. On the other hand, the gradual disasters that tend to affect more lives build up slowly, allowing more time for preventative measures to be taken. However, in a Catch-22 situation, the gradual nature of these calamities is also what prevents them from garnering the media attention they deserve.

There are other biases, too. Eisensee and Strömberg found that while television networks cover more than 15% of the disasters in Europe and South Central America, they show less than 5% of the disasters in Africa and the Pacific. Disasters in Africa tend to get less coverage than ones in Asia because they are less "spectacular", with more droughts and food shortages occurring there relative to Asia.

However, after controlling for disaster type, along with other factors such as the number killed and the timing of the news, there is no significant difference between coverage of African and Asian disasters. Instead, a huge difference emerges between coverage of Africa, Asia, and the Pacific on the one hand, and Europe and South and Central America, on the other.

According to the researchers' estimates, 45 times as many people would have to die in an African disaster for it to garner the same media attention as a European one. The two visualizations show the extent of this bias.

ABC News's slogan is "See the whole picture" and CNN's is "Go there", but good follow-up questions might be: what exactly, and where?

One of the major successes over the past century has been the dramatic decline in global deaths from natural disasters - this is despite the fact that the human population has increased rapidly over this period.

Behind this improvement has been the improvement in living standards; access to and development of resilient infrastructure; and effective response systems. These factors have been driven by an increase in incomes across the world.

What remains true today is that populations in low-income countries - those where a large percentage of the population still live in extreme poverty, or score low on the Human Development Index - are more vulnerable to the effects of natural disasters.

We see this effect in the visualization shown. This chart shows the death rates from natural disasters - the number of deaths per 100,000 population - of countries grouped by their socio-demographic index (SDI). SDI is a metric of development, where low-SDI denotes countries with low standards of living.

What we see is that the large spikes in death rates occur almost exclusively for countries with a low or low-middle SDI. Highly developed countries are much more resilient to disaster events and therefore have a consistently low death rate from natural disasters.

Note that this does not mean low-income countries have high death tolls from disasters year-to-year: the data here shows that in most years they also have very low death rates. But when low-frequency, high-impact events do occur they are particularly vulnerable to its effects.

Overall development, poverty alleviation, and knowledge-sharing of how to increase resilience to natural disasters will therefore be key to reducing the toll of disasters in the decades to come.

There are multiple terms used to describe extreme weather events: hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones and tornadoes. What is the difference between these terms, and how are they defined?

The terms hurricane, cyclone and typhoon all refer to the same thing; they can be used interchangeably. Hurricanes and typhoons are both described as the weather phenomenon 'tropical cyclone'. A tropical cyclone is a weather event which originates over tropical or subtropical waters and results in a rotating, organized system of clouds and thunderstorms. Its circulation patterns should be closed and low-level.

The choice of terminology is location-specific and depends on where the storm originates. The term hurricane is used to describe a tropical cyclone which originates in the North Atlantic, central North Pacific, and eastern North Pacific. When it originates in the Northwest Pacific, we call it typhoon. In the South Pacific and Indian Ocean the general term tropical cyclone is used.

In other words, the only difference between a hurricane and typhoon is where it occurs.

The characteristics of a hurricane are described in detail at the NASA website.

A hurricane evolves from a tropical disturbance or storm based on a threshold of wind speed.

A tropical disturbance arises over warm ocean waters. It can grow into a tropical depression which is an area of rotating thunderstorms with winds up to 62 kilometres (38 miles) per hour. From there, a depression evolves into a tropical storm if its wind speed reaches 63 km/hr (39 mph).

Finally a hurricane is formed when a tropical storm reaches a wind speed of 119 km/hr (74 mph).

But, hurricanes/typhoons/cyclones are distinctly different from tornadoes.

Whilst hurricanes and tornadoes have a characteristic circulatory wind patterns, they are very different weather systems. The main difference between the systems is scale (tornadoes are small-scale circulatory systems; hurricanes are large-scale). These differences are highlighted in the table below:

Hurricanes/typhoons

Tornadoes

Diameter
60 to 1000s miles

Up to 1 - 1.5 miles (usually less)

Wind speed
74 to 200 mph

40 to 300 mph

Lifetime
Long (usually days)

Very short (usually minutes)

Travel distance
Long (100 metres to 100 miles)

Short distances

Environmental impact
Can have impact on wider environment and atmospheric patterns.

Local (although can be very high impact). Little wider impact on atmospheric systems or environment.

The intensity or size of volcanic eruptions are most commonly defined by a metric termed the 'volcanic explosivity index (VEI)'. The VEI is derived based on the erupted mass or deposit of an eruption. The scale for VEI was outlined by Newhall & Self (1982), but is now commonly adopted in geophysical reporting.¹⁴

The table below provides a summary (from the NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center) of the characteristics of eruptions of different VEI values. A 'Significant Volcanic Eruption' is often defined as an eruption with a VEI value of 6 or greater. Historic eruptions that were definitely explosive, but carry no other descriptive information are assigned a default VEI of 2.

Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI)

General description

Cloud Column Height (km)

Volume (m³)

Qualititative Description

Classification

How frequent?

Example

A key issue of data quality is the consistency of even reporting over time. For long-term trends in natural disaster events we know that reporting and recording of events today is much more advanced and complete than in the past. This can lead to significant underreporting or uncertainty of events in the distant past.

In the chart here we show data on the number of reported natural disasters over time.

This change over time can be influenced by a number of factors, namely the increased coverage of reporting over time. The increase over time is therefore not directly reflective of the actual trend in disaster events.

This same data is shown here as the number of reported disaster events by type. Again, the incompleteness of historical data can lead to significant underreporting in the past. The increase over time is therefore not directly reflective of the actual trend in disaster events.

Wikipedia has several lists of disasters, and an overview of these lists can be found at List of Disasters.

Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), Global Burden of Disease

EM-DAT - The International Disaster Database

Data: EM-DAT is a catalogue of disasters listing detailed information on natural disasters: droughts (famines), earthquakes, epidemics, extreme temperatures, floods, insect infestations, mass movement (dry & wet), storms, volcanos, and wildfires. There is also a data section on technological disasters.

Geographical coverage: Global - country and regional level (primarily cross-country data set, but also contains the name of the sub-national regions affected by disasters)

Time span: 1900 onwards

Available at: EM-DAT

Raw data has to be requested but the section on disaster trends encompasses a number of visualizations (time series and maps).

EM-DAT is maintained by the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED)

EM-DAT data on the annual number of deaths and number of affected by drought, epidemics, earthquakes, extreme temperature, flood, storm, tsunami, plane crash by country is available at Gapminder.

Earth Observatory by NASA - Natural Hazards

Natural Hazards Data - U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC)

Data: Data and maps on many natural hazards including cyclones, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes, and wildfires. It includes the 'Global Significant Earthquake Database, 2150 B.C. to present' (5500 events) and 'The Significant Volcanic Eruption Database' and 'Global Historical Tsunami Events and Runups' among many other datasets.

Geographical coverage: Global - exact location

Time span: Millennia

Available at: Online here

Download maps as pdf or ArcIMS interactive maps, and data in tab-delimited data files or html.

Global Risk Data Platform

Data: Spatial data on tropical cyclones and related storm surges, drought, earthquakes, biomass fires, floods, landslides, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.

Geographical coverage: Global

Time span: Recent past

Available at: The website can be found here.

Users can visualize, download or extract data on past hazardous events, human & economical hazard exposure and risk from natural hazards.

Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) - by NASA

Center for Hazards & Risk Research at Columbia University

Hotspots: Risk levels calculated by combining hazard exposure with historical vulnerability for two indicators of elements at risk-gridded population and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per unit area-for six major natural hazards: earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, floods, drought, and cyclones

Natural disaster profiles: Profiles for 13 countries provide information on sub-national areas at risk from natural hazards including cyclones, droughts, earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, and landslides.

Geographical coverage: Global for hotspots data

Time span: Recent past

Available at: Online here

Global Earthquake Model (GEM)

Data: GEM Global Historical Earthquake Catalogue (1000-1900) and the ISC-GEM Global Instrumental Earthquake Catalogue (1900-2009)

Geographical coverage:Global

Time span: 1000 onwards

Available at: Online here

ATSR World Fire Atlas - by the European Space Agency (ESA)

Data: Monthly global fire maps

Geographical coverage: Global

Time span: 1995 onwards

Available at: Online at the website of ESA here

Unisys Data on Hurricanes

Data: Data on the track of the storm plus a text-based table of tracking information. The table includes position in latitude and longitude, maximum sustained winds in knots, and central pressure in millibars.

Geographical coverage: Atlantic, East Pacific, West Pacific, South Pacific, South Indian, and North Indian

Time span: 1851 until now

Available at: Online here

This data set was used by Dean Yang (2008) - Coping with Disaster: The Impact of Hurricanes on International Financial Flows, 1970-2002. The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy. Volume 8, Issue 1, ISSN (Online) 1935-1682, DOI: 10.2202/1935-1682.1903, June 2008. Online here.

National Climatic Data Center (NOAA)

National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC)

Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program (GVP)

Data: Complete list of current and past activity for all volcanoes on the planet active during the last 10,000 years. Data includes eruption type, maximum Volcanic Explosivity Index, start and end dates (when known), and the type of evidence for the eruption.

Geographical coverage: Global

Time span: Past 10,000 years to present day

Available at: Online at the Volcanoes of the World Database

Full reference: Global Volcanism Program, 2013. Volcanoes of the World, v. 4.7.3. Venzke, E (ed.). Smithsonian Institution. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.GVP.VOTW4-2013

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Where and from which disasters do people die? What can we do to prevent deaths from natural disasters?

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Natural disasters include all types of severe weather, which have potential to pose significant threats to human health and safety. Find resources here.

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The aggregate, long-term weather—or state of the atmosphere—of any place is known as its climate. For example, a description of weather might be “It rained yesterday in…

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Google Arts and Culture: Culture Meets Climate

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Google Arts and Culture: Culture Meets Climate

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Culture Meets Climate - Google Arts & Culture

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Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world’s treasures online.

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Climate types for kids is an educational website designed to explain the 12 main types of climates found around the world. This site contains consistent information designed for kids and adults who are new to learning about world climates.

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Find lessons on Climate Zones for all grades. Free interactive resources and activities for the classroom and home.

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National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: Climate Zones

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National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: Climate Zones

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A biome is a large region of Earth that has a certain climate and certain types of living things. Major biomes include tundra, forests, grasslands, and deserts. The plants...

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Kids learn about the world's biomes and ecosystems. The network of life and biodiversity needed for all to survive.

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Lots of good links on this webpage!

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A biome is an area classified according to the species that live in that location. Temperature range, soil type, and the amount of light and water are unique to a particular place and form the niches for specific species allowing scientists to define the biome. However, scientists disagree on how many biomes exist. Some count six (forest, grassland, freshwater, marine, desert, and tundra), others eight (separating two types of forests and adding tropical savannah), and still others are more specific and count as many as 11 biomes.

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Biomes are areas with a similar climate and landscape. Find out more with year 5/6 Bitesize KS2 Geography.

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Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in a different part of the world? What would the weather be like? What kinds of animals would you see? Which plants live there? By investigating these questions, you are learning about biomes. A biome is a community of plants and animals living together in a certain kind of climate. Scientists have classified regions of the world into different biomes.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to investigate biomes, then test your knowledge about the biomes by completing each mission.

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climate change, global climate change, global warming, natural hazards, Earth, environment, remote sensing, atmosphere, land processes, oceans, volcanoes, land cover, Earth science data, NASA, environmental processes, Blue Marble, global maps

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Travel the world on this field trip to see the variety of biomes.

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Exploring Biomes with Google Earth Links

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climate change, global climate change, global warming, natural hazards, Earth, environment, remote sensing, atmosphere, land processes, oceans, volcanoes, land cover, Earth science data, NASA, environmental processes, Blue Marble, global maps

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climate change, global climate change, global warming, natural hazards, Earth, environment, remote sensing, atmosphere, land processes, oceans, volcanoes, land cover, Earth science data, NASA, environmental processes, Blue Marble, global maps

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climate change, global climate change, global warming, natural hazards, Earth, environment, remote sensing, atmosphere, land processes, oceans, volcanoes, land cover, Earth science data, NASA, environmental processes, Blue Marble, global maps

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climate change, global climate change, global warming, natural hazards, Earth, environment, remote sensing, atmosphere, land processes, oceans, volcanoes, land cover, Earth science data, NASA, environmental processes, Blue Marble, global maps

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climate change, global climate change, global warming, natural hazards, Earth, environment, remote sensing, atmosphere, land processes, oceans, volcanoes, land cover, Earth science data, NASA, environmental processes, Blue Marble, global maps

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Weather vs. Climate: Crash Course Kids #28.1

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Climate Zones of the Earth - The Dr. Binocs Show | Best Learning Videos For kids | Dr Binocs

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Weather Wiz Kids | Because weather is awesome

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Weather is a specific event-like a rainstorm or hot day-that happens over a few hours, days or weeks. Climate is the average weather conditions in a place over 30 years or more. NASA has observed that Earth's climate is getting warmer.

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Weather is a specific event-like a rainstorm or hot day-that happens over a few hours, days or weeks. Climate is the average weather conditions in a place over 30 years or more. NASA has observed that Earth's climate is getting warmer.

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Kids learn more about the science of the weather. Sunshine, rain, snow, cold, hot, and windy.

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Many different elements combine to create weather. Temperature is one of the basic elements of weather. Temperature is how warm or cold it is outside.

Wind, or the movement of air across Earth's surface, is a second element of weather. Winds may be gentle or powerful.

A third element of weather is humidity, or the amount of moisture in the air. Warm air can hold more moisture than cold air can.

Precipitation is a fourth element of weather. Precipitation may come in many forms, including rain, hail, sleet, and snow. The form precipitation takes depends on other weather conditions, such as temperature.

A fifth element of weather is atmospheric pressure. This is the weight of air above a given area. Changes in pressure help people to predict approaching storms. A storm is a disturbance in the atmosphere-for example, a thunderstorm or a hurricane.

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Many different elements combine to create weather. Temperature is one of the basic elements of weather. Temperature is how warm or cold it is outside. Wind, or the movement of air across Earth's surface, is a second element of weather. Winds may be gentle or powerful.

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NWS Columbia SC Student and Teacher Resources

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How Weather Works! | A SciShow Kids Playlist

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Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

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Weather | Sid the Science Kid | PBS LearningMedia

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‘Weather’ is a typical preschool science topic with many classrooms including a weather chart as part of morning circle time.

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Weather facts, photos, videos, and experiments

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Weather facts, photos, videos, and experiments

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Careers: Meteorologist for Kids | Learn all about the job of a meteorologist

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Weather Tools for Kids | Learn How Meteorologists Measure Weather!

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NASA Climate Kids: A Guide to Climate Change

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NASA Climate Kids: A Guide to Climate Change

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Have you heard your parents or people in videos talking about climate change? Ever wondered what it is and why we care about it so much? NASA scientists have been studying Earth's climate for more than 40 years. We used what we've learned in that time to answer some of your biggest questions below!

What does climate change do to the ocean?

As Earth warms, NASA has observed that sea levels are rising. This is partly due to melting ice. Glaciers and ice sheets are large masses of ice that sit on the land. As our planet warms, this ice melts and flows into the oceans. More water in the oceans makes sea level higher. Also, water expands as it gets warmer. So, warm water takes up more room in our oceans - making sea levels higher.

The properties of ocean water are also changing. One change is called ocean acidification and it can be harmful for plants and animals. Scientists have observed that the ocean is becoming more acidic as its water absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Click here to learn more about how we measure sea level!
What can I do?

Climate change seems big, but it's something that we can learn about and work on together! NASA's scientists are studying and monitoring climate change-and there are a few ways you can help them learn more.

Learn. Have more questions about climate change? Read, play, and watch more about it on NASA Climate Kids.

Do. Want to collect real data for climate scientists? Check out these NASA citizen science projects to see how you can contribute to what we know about our planet.
Some examples include:

Globe Observer

Community Snow Observations

Air Quality Citizen Science

Click here to download this guide as a printable PDF!

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We answer some of your biggest questions!

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National Geographic: What is Climate Change?

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National Geographic: What is Climate Change?

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We've all heard of it, but what is climate change and what is it doing to our planet?

So, what is climate change?

Climate change (or global warming), is the process of our planet heating up.

Scientists estimate that since the Industrial Revolution, human activity has caused the Earth to warm by approximately 1°C. While that might not sound like much, it means big things for people and wildlife around the globe.

Unfortunately, rising temperatures don't just mean that we'll get nicer weather - if only! The changing climate will actually make our weather more extreme and unpredictable.

As temperatures rise, some areas will get wetter and lots of animals (and humans!) could find they're not able to adapt to their changing climate.

Check out our magazine!
National Geographic Kids is an exciting monthly read for planet-passionate boys and girls, aged 6-13! Packed full of fun features, jaw-dropping facts and awe-inspiring photos - it'll keep you entertained for hours! Find our magazine in all good newsagents, or become a subscriber and have it delivered to your door! Ask your parents to check out the 'Subscribe' tab on our website!
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What causes climate change?

1. Burning fossil fuels

Over the past 150 years, industrialised countries have been burning large amounts of fossil fuels such as oil and gas. The gases released into the atmosphere during this process act like an invisible 'blanket', trapping heat from the sun and warming the Earth. This is known as the " Greenhouse Effect ".

2. Farming

Believe it or not, cows' eating habits contribute towards climate change. Just like us, when cows eat, methane - a type of greenhouse gas - builds up in their digestive system and is released in the form of... a burp! This might sound funny, but when you imagine that there are almost 1.5 billion cows releasing all that gas into the atmosphere, it sure adds up!

3. Deforestation

Forests absorb huge amounts of carbon dioxide - another greenhouse gas - from the air, and release oxygen back into it. The Amazon rainforest is so large and efficient at doing this that it acts like our planet's air conditioner - limiting climate change. Sadly, many rainforests are being cut down to make wood, palm oil and to clear the way for farmland, roads, oil mines, and dams.

How will climate change affect the planet?

The Earth has had many tropical climates and ice ages over the billions of years that it's been in existence, so why is now so different? Well, this is because for the last 150 years human activity has meant we're releasing a huge amount of harmful gases into the Earth's atmosphere, and records show that the global temperatures are rising more rapidly since this time.

A warmer climate could affect our planet in a number of ways:
- Shrinking sea ice
How will climate change affect wildlife?

Climate change is already affecting wildlife all over the world, but certain species are suffering more than others. Polar animals - whose icy natural habitat is melting in the warmer temperatures - are particularly at risk. In fact, experts believe that the Arctic sea ice is melting at a shocking rate - 9% per decade! Polar bears need sea ice to be able to hunt, raise their young and as places to rest after long periods of swimming. Certain seal species, like ringed seals make caves in the snow and ice to raise their pups, feed and mate.

It's not just polar animals who are in trouble. Apes like orangutans, which live in the rainforests of Indonesia, are under threat as their habitat is cut down, and more droughts cause more bushfires.

Sea turtles rely on nesting beaches to lay their eggs, many of which are threatened by rising sea levels. Did you know that the temperature of nests determines whether the eggs are male or female? Unfortunately, with temperatures on the rise, this could mean that many more females are born than males, threatening future turtle populations.

How will people be affected by climate change?

Climate change won't just affect animals, it's already having an impact on people, too. Most affected are some of the people who grow the food we eat every day. Farming communities, especially in developing countries, are facing higher temperatures, increased rain, floods and droughts.

We Brits love a good cuppa, (around 165 million cups of the stuff every day!), but we probably take for granted just how much work goes into growing our tea. Environmental conditions can affect the flavour and quality plus it needs a very specific rainfall to grow. In Kenya, climate change is making rainfall patterns less and less predictable. Often there will be droughts followed by huge amounts rain, which makes it very difficult to grow tea.

Farmers might then resort to using cheap chemicals to improve their crop to earn more money, even when long-term use of these chemicals can destroy their soil.

How are people coping with climate change?

Buying Fairtrade products can help make sure a farmer is paid a fair wage. This means they can cover their costs, earn enough money to have a decent standard of living, and invest in their farms to keep their crop healthy, without needing to resort to cheap methods of farming which can further damage the environment.

This support also helps farmers to replace eucalyptus trees - which take up a lot of water - with indigenous trees that are better for the farmers' soil. They can learn to make fuel-efficient stoves which will not only make them a little extra money, but also reduce the carbon footprint of the community - cool!

How can I help prevent climate change?

Small changes in your own home can make a difference, too. Try switching to energy-saving lightbulbs, walking instead of using the car, turning off electrical items when you're not using them, recycling and reducing your food waste.

All these little things can make a difference. You can check out more eco-friendly ideas, in our kids' guide to saving the planet! Plus, check out our cool article about Greta Thunberg, too, to discover how young people are making their voices heard.

You can download information about Fairtrade and climate change for your school, here! www.fairtrade.org.uk/schools.

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What is climate change: facts for kids | National Geographic Kids

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What is climate change (a.k.a. global warming) & why is it happening? We explain how it affects our planet & how we can prevent it...

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American Museum of Natural History: Climate Change

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American Museum of Natural History: Climate Change

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Find out why Earth’s climate is changing and what you can do about it.

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EPA: A Student's Guide to Climate Change

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EPA: A Student's Guide to Climate Change

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A Student's Guide to Global Climate Change | US EPA

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We often think about human-induced climate change as something that will happen in the future, but it is happening now. Ecosystems and people in the United States and around the world are affected by the ongoing process of climate change today.

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The effects of human-caused global warming are happening now, are irreversible for people alive today, and will worsen as long as humans add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

We already see effects scientists predicted, such as the loss of sea ice, melting glaciers and ice sheets, sea level rise, and more intense heat waves.

Scientists predict global temperature increases from human-made greenhouse gases will continue. Severe weather damage will also increase and intensify.

Earth Will Continue to Warm and the Effects Will Be Profound

Global climate change is not a future problem. Changes to Earth's climate driven by increased human emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases are already having widespread effects on the environment: glaciers and ice sheets are shrinking, river and lake ice is breaking up earlier, plant and animal geographic ranges are shifting, and plants and trees are blooming sooner.

Effects that scientists had long predicted would result from global climate change are now occurring, such as sea ice loss, accelerated sea level rise, and longer, more intense heat waves.

The magnitude and rate of climate change and associated risks depend strongly on near-term mitigation and adaptation actions, and projected adverse impacts and related losses and damages escalate with every increment of global warming.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Some changes (such as droughts, wildfires, and extreme rainfall) are happening faster than scientists previously assessed. In fact, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - the United Nations body established to assess the science related to climate change - modern humans have never before seen the observed changes in our global climate, and some of these changes are irreversible over the next hundreds to thousands of years.

Scientists have high confidence that global temperatures will continue to rise for many decades, mainly due to greenhouse gases produced by human activities.

The IPCC's Sixth Assessment report, published in 2021, found that human emissions of heat-trapping gases have already warmed the climate by nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius) since 1850-1900.1 The global average temperature is expected to reach or exceed 1.5 degrees C (about 3 degrees F) within the next few decades. These changes will affect all regions of Earth.

The severity of effects caused by climate change will depend on the path of future human activities. More greenhouse gas emissions will lead to more climate extremes and widespread damaging effects across our planet. However, those future effects depend on the total amount of carbon dioxide we emit. So, if we can reduce emissions, we may avoid some of the worst effects.

The scientific evidence is unequivocal: climate change is a threat to human wellbeing and the health of the planet. Any further delay in concerted global action will miss the brief, rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Here are some of the expected effects of global climate change on the United States, according to the Third and Fourth National Climate Assessment Reports:

Future effects of global climate change in the United States:

Longer Wildfire Season

Warming temperatures have extended and intensified wildfire season in the West, where long-term drought in the region has heightened the risk of fires. Scientists estimate that human-caused climate change has already doubled the area of forest burned in recent decades. By around 2050, the amount of land consumed by wildfires in Western states is projected to further increase by two to six times. Even in traditionally rainy regions like the Southeast, wildfires are projected to increase by about 30%.

Frost-Free Season (and Growing Season) will Lengthen

The length of the frost-free season, and the corresponding growing season, has been increasing since the 1980s, with the largest increases occurring in the western United States. Across the United States, the growing season is projected to continue to lengthen, which will affect ecosystems and agriculture.

Arctic Is Very Likely to Become Ice-Free

Sea ice cover in the Arctic Ocean is expected to continue decreasing, and the Arctic Ocean will very likely become essentially ice-free in late summer if current projections hold. This change is expected to occur before mid-century.

Climate change is bringing different types of challenges to each region of the country. Some of the current and future impacts are summarized below. These findings are from the Third3 and Fourth4 National Climate Assessment Reports, released by the U.S. Global Change Research Program.

Northeast. Heat waves, heavy downpours, and sea level rise pose increasing challenges to many aspects of life in the Northeast. Infrastructure, agriculture, fisheries, and ecosystems will be increasingly compromised. Farmers can explore new crop options, but these adaptations are not cost- or risk-free. Moreover, adaptive capacity, which varies throughout the region, could be overwhelmed by a changing climate. Many states and cities are beginning to incorporate climate change into their planning.

Northwest. Changes in the timing of peak flows in rivers and streams are reducing water supplies and worsening competing demands for water. Sea level rise, erosion, flooding, risks to infrastructure, and increasing ocean acidity pose major threats. Increasing wildfire incidence and severity, heat waves, insect outbreaks, and tree diseases are causing widespread forest die-off.

Southeast. Sea level rise poses widespread and continuing threats to the region's economy and environment. Extreme heat will affect health, energy, agriculture, and more. Decreased water availability will have economic and environmental impacts.

Midwest. Extreme heat, heavy downpours, and flooding will affect infrastructure, health, agriculture, forestry, transportation, air and water quality, and more. Climate change will also worsen a range of risks to the Great Lakes.

Southwest. Climate change has caused increased heat, drought, and insect outbreaks. In turn, these changes have made wildfires more numerous and severe. The warming climate has also caused a decline in water supplies, reduced agricultural yields, and triggered heat-related health impacts in cities. In coastal areas, flooding and erosion are additional concerns.

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Takeaways Earth Will Continue to Warm and the Effects Will Be Profound Global climate change is not a future problem. Changes to Earth's climate driven by increased human emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases are already having widespread effects on the environment: glaciers and ice sheets are shrinking, river and lake ice is breaking up earlier, [...]

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Higher average temperatures

This change in global average temperature-seemingly small but consequential and climbing-means that, each summer, we are likely to experience increasingly sweltering heat waves. Even local news meteorologists are starting to connect strings of record-breaking days to new long-term trends, which are especially problematic in regions where infrastructure and housing have not been built with intensifying heat in mind. And heat waves aren't just uncomfortable-they're the leading cause of weather-related fatalities in the United States.

Longer-lasting droughts

Hotter temperatures increase the rate at which water evaporates from the air, leading to more severe and pervasive droughts. Already, climate change has pushed the American West into a severe "megadrought"-the driest 22-year stretch recorded in at least 1,200 years-shrinking drinking water supplies, withering crops, and making forests more susceptible to insect infestations. Drought can also create a positive feedback loop in which drier soil and less plant cover cause even faster evaporation.

More intense wildfires

This drier, hotter climate also creates conditions that fuel more vicious wildfire seasons-with fires that spread faster and burn longer-putting millions of additional lives and homes at risk. The number of large wildfires doubled between 1984 and 2015 in the western United States. And in California alone, the annual area burned by wildfires increased 500 percent between 1972 and 2018.

From the poles to the tropics, climate change is disrupting ecosystems. Even a seemingly slight shift in temperature can cause dramatic changes that ripple through food webs and the environment.

Melting sea ice

The effects of climate change are most apparent in the world's coldest regions-the poles. The Arctic is heating up twice as fast as anywhere else on earth, leading to the rapid melting of glaciers and polar ice sheets, where a massive amount of water is stored. As sea ice melts, darker ocean waters that absorb more sunlight become exposed, creating a positive feedback loop that speeds up the melting process. In just 15 years, the Arctic could be entirely ice-free in the summer.

Sea level rise

Scientists predict that melting sea ice and glaciers, as well as the fact that warmer water expands in volume, could cause sea levels to rise as much as 3.61 feet by the end of the century, should we fail to curb emissions. The extent (and pace) of this change would devastate low-lying regions, including island nations and densely populated coastal cities like New York City and Mumbai.

But sea level rise at far lower levels is still costly, dangerous, and disruptive. Scientists predict that the United States will see a foot of sea level rise by 2050, which will regularly damage infrastructure, like roads, sewage treatment plants, and even power plants. Beaches that families have grown up visiting may be gone by the end of the century. Sea level rise also harms the environment, as encroaching seawater can both erode coastal ecosystems and invade freshwater inland aquifers, which we rely on for agriculture and drinking water. Saltwater incursion is already reshaping life in nations like Bangladesh, where one-quarter of the lands lie less than 7 feet above sea level.

Flooding

In addition to coastal flooding caused by sea level rise, climate change influences the factors that result in inland and urban flooding: snowmelt and heavy rain. As global warming continues to both exacerbate sea level rise and extreme weather, our nation's floodplains are expected to grow by approximately 45 percent by 2100. In 2022, deadly flooding in Pakistan-which inundated as much as a third of the country-resulted from torrential rains mixed with melting glaciers and snow.

Warmer ocean waters and marine heat waves

Temperature-sensitive fish and other marine life are already changing migration patterns toward cooler and deeper waters to survive, sending food webs and important commercial fisheries into disarray. And the frequency of marine heat waves has increased by more than a third. These spikes have led to mass die-offs of plankton and marine mammals.

To make matters worse, the elevated absorption of carbon dioxide by the ocean leads to its gradual acidification, which alters the fundamental chemical makeup of the water and threatens marine life that has evolved to live in a narrow pH band. Animals like corals, oysters, and mussels will likely feel these effects first, as acidification disrupts the calcification process required to build their shells.

Ecosystem stressors

Land-based ecosystems-from old-growth forests to savannahs to tropical rainforests-are faring no better. Climate change is likely to increase outbreaks of pests, invasive species, and pathogen infections in forests. It's changing the kinds of vegetation that can thrive in a given region and disrupting the life cycles of wildlife, all of which is changing the composition of ecosystems and making them less resilient to stressors. While ecosystems have the capacity to adapt, many are reaching the hard limits of that natural capacity. More repercussions will follow as temperatures rise.

Climate change appears to be triggering a series of cascading ecological changes that we can neither fully predict nor, once they have enough momentum, fully stop. This ecosystem destabilization may be most apparent when it comes to keystone species that have an outsize- role in holding up an ecosystem's structure.

Less predictable growing seasons

In a warming world, farming crops is more unpredictable-and livestock, which are sensitive to extreme weather, become harder to raise. Climate change shifts precipitation patterns, causing unpredictable floods and longer-lasting droughts. More frequent and severe hurricanes can devastate an entire season's worth of crops. Meanwhile, the dynamics of pests, pathogens, and invasive species-all of which are costly for farmers to manage-are also expected to become harder to predict. This is bad news, given that most of the world's farms are small and family-run. One bad drought or flood could decimate an entire season's crop or herd. For example, in June 2022, a triple-digit heat wave in Kansas wiped out thousands of cows. While the regenerative agriculture movement is empowering rural communities to make their lands more resilient to climate change, unfortunately, not all communities can equitably access the support services that can help them embrace these more sustainable farming tactics.

Reduced soil health

Healthy soil has good moisture and mineral content and is teeming with bugs, bacteria, fungi, and microbes that in turn contribute to healthy crops. But climate change, particularly extreme heat and changes in precipitation, can degrade soil quality. These impacts are exacerbated in areas where industrial, chemical-dependent monoculture farming has made soil and crops less able to withstand environmental changes.

Food shortages

Ultimately, impacts to our agricultural systems pose a direct threat to the global food supply. And food shortages and price hikes driven by climate change will not affect everyone equally: Wealthier people will continue to have more options for accessing food, while potentially billions of others will be plummeted into food insecurity-adding to the billions that already have moderate or severe difficulty getting enough to eat.

Many species' behaviors-mating, feeding, migration-are closely tied to subtle seasonal shifts, as in temperature, precipitation level, and foliage. In some cases, changes to the environment are happening quicker than species are able to adapt. When the types and quantity of plant life change across a region, or when certain species bloom or hatch earlier or later than in the past, it impacts food and water supplies and reverberates up food chains.

Ultimately, the way climate change impacts weather, the environment, animals, and agriculture affects humanity as well. But there's more. Around the world, our ways of life-from how we get our food to the industries around which our economies are based-have all developed in the context of relatively stable climates. As global warming shakes this foundation, it promises to alter the very fabric of society. At worst, this could lead to widespread famine, disease, war, displacement, injury, and death. For many around the world, this grim forecast is already their reality. In this way, climate change poses an existential threat to all human life.

Human health

Insect-borne diseases like malaria and Zika become more prevalent in a warming world as their carriers are able to exist in more regions or thrive for longer seasons. In the past 30 years, the incidence of Lyme disease from ticks has nearly doubled in the United States. Thousands of people face injury, illness, and death every year from more frequent or more intense extreme weather events. At a 2-degree Celsius rise in global average temperature, an estimated one billion people will face heat stress risk. In the summer of 2022 alone, thousands died in record-shattering heat waves across Europe. Weeks later, dozens were killed by record-breaking urban flooding in the United States and Korea-and more than 1,500 people perished in the flooding in Pakistan, where resulting stagnant water and unsanitary conditions threaten even more.

The effects of climate change-and the looming threat of what's yet to come-take a significant toll on mental health too. One recent study ( the largest of its kind to date) surveyed 10,000 young people from 10 different countries. Forty-five percent of respondents said that their feelings about climate change, varying from anxiety to powerlessness to anger, impacted their daily lives.

Worsening inequity

The climate crisis exacerbates existing inequities. Though wealthy nations, such as the United States, have emitted the lion's share of historical greenhouse gas emissions, it's developing countries that may lack the resources to adapt and will now bear the brunt of the climate crisis. In some cases, low-lying island nations-like many in the Pacific -may cease to exist before developed economies make meaningful reductions to their carbon emissions.

Even within wealthier nations, disparities will continue to grow between those rich enough to shield themselves from the realities of climate change and those who cannot. Those with ample resources will not be displaced from their homes by wars over food or water-at least not right away. They will have homes with cool air during heat waves and be able to easily evacuate when a hurricane is headed their way. They will be able to buy increasingly expensive food and access treatment for respiratory illness caused by wildfire smoke. Billions of others can't-and are paying the highest price for climate pollution they did not produce.

Hurricane Katrina, for example, displaced more than one million people around the Gulf Coast. But in New Orleans, where redlining practices promoted racial and economic segregation, the city's more affluent areas tended to be located on higher ground-and those residents were able to return and rebuild much faster than others.

Displacement

Climate change will drive displacement due to impacts like food and water scarcities, sea level rise, and economic instability. It's already happening. The United Nations Global Compact on Refugees recognizes that "climate, environmental degradation and disasters increasingly interact with the drivers of refugee movements." Again, communities with the fewest resources-including those facing political instability and poverty-will feel the effects first and most devastatingly.

Economic impacts

Recovering from the destruction wrought by extreme weather like hurricanes, flash floods, and wildfires is also getting more expensive every year. In 2021, the price tag of weather disasters in the United States totaled $145 billion-the third-costliest year on record, including a number of billion-dollar weather events.

Future Effects of Climate Change

The first wave of impacts can already be felt in our communities and seen on the nightly news. In the near future, between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause an additional 250,000 deaths per year from things like malnutrition, insect-borne diseases, and heat stress. And the World Bank estimates that climate change could displace more than 140 million people within their home countries in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America by 2050.

But the degree to which the climate crisis upends our lives depends on whether global leaders decide to chart a different course. If we fail to curb greenhouse gas emissions, scientists predict a catastrophic 4.3 degrees Celsius, (or around 8 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming by the end of the century. What would a world that warm look like? Wars over water. Crowded hospitals to contend with spreading disease. Collapsed fisheries. Dead coral reefs. Even more lethal heat waves. These are just some of the impacts predicted by climate scientists.

Climate mitigation, or our ability to reverse climate change and undo its widespread effects, hinges on the successful enactment of policies that yield deep cuts to carbon pollution, end our dependence on dangerous fossil fuels and the deadly air pollution they generate, and prioritize the people and ecosystems on the frontlines. And these actions must be taken quickly in order to ensure a healthier present day and future. In one of its latest reports, the IPCC presented its most optimistic emissions scenario, in which the world only briefly surpasses 1.5 degrees of warming but sequestration measures cause it to dip back below by 2100. Climate adaptation, a term that refers to coping with climate impacts, is no longer optional; it's necessary, particularly for the world's most vulnerable populations.

By following the urgent warnings of the IPCC and limiting warming, we may be able to avoid passing some of the critical thresholds that, once crossed, can lead to potentially irreversible, catastrophic impacts for the planet, including more warming. These thresholds are known as climate tipping points and refer to when a natural system "tips" into an entirely different state. One example would be Arctic permafrost, which stores carbon like a freezer: As the permafrost melts from warming temperatures, it releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Importantly, climate action is not a binary pass-fail test. Every fraction of a degree of warming that we prevent will reduce human suffering and death, and keep more of the planet's natural systems intact. The good news is that a wide range of solutions exist to sharply reduce emissions, slow the pace of warming, and protect communities on the frontlines of climate impacts. Climate leaders the world over-those on major political stages as well as grassroots community activists-are offering up alternative models to systems that prioritize polluters over people. Many of these solutions are rooted in ancestral and Indigenous understandings of the natural world and have existed for millennia. Some solutions require major investments into clean, renewable energy and sustainable technologies. To be successful, climate solutions must also address intersecting crises-like poverty, racism, and gender inequality -that compound and drive the causes and impacts of the climate crisis. A combination of human ingenuity and immense political will can help us get there.

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A rapidly warming planet poses an existential threat to all life on earth. Just how bad it gets depends on how quickly we act.

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Visualize satellite data, see changes over time on land, glaciers, and in the ocean, and discover evidence for Earth's past climates.

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Visualize satellite data, see changes over time on land, glaciers, and in the ocean, and discover evidence for Earth's past climates.

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Interactives – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet

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Vital Signs of the Planet: Global Climate Change and Global Warming. Current news and data streams about global warming and climate change from NASA.

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How do greenhouse gases affect the climate? Explore the atmosphere during the ice age and today. What happens when you add clouds? Change the greenhouse gas concentration and see how the temperature changes.

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National Climate Assessment Interactive Atlas

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The Interactive Atlas of the 5th National Climate Assessment of the United States provides maps, data, and stories from the 5th Assessment.

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The plates have moved across Earth's surface for hundreds of millions of years. As the plates move, the continents on them move, too. This movement is called continental drift.

Scientists think that it takes about 500 million years for all the continents to join together into one big continent-or supercontinent-and then break apart again. A number of supercontinents have formed and broken apart on Earth over time. The most recent supercontinent, called Pangea (or Pangaea), had formed by about 270 million years ago. Pangea lay across a plate boundary. Slowly, Pangea broke apart at this boundary. Rising magma filled in the space, which eventually became the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.

One piece of Pangea included parts of what are now North America, Europe, and Asia. This piece, called Laurasia, drifted north. The other piece of Pangea included parts of what are now Antarctica, Africa, South America, and Australia. This part, called Gondwanaland, drifted south. Eventually Laurasia and Gondwanaland broke apart, too. The continents then slowly moved to the places they are now.

The continents continue to move today. Scientists believe that in about 250 million years they will join together again.

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The theory, or idea, of plate tectonics says that Earth's outer layer is made up of large, moving pieces called plates. All of Earth's land and water sit on these plates. The...

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Kids learn about the Earth science subject of plate tectonics including major and minor plates, convergent, divergent, and transform boundaries.

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National Geographic Education: Plate Tectonics

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National Geographic Education: Plate Tectonics

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Lots of good resources on this webpage!

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Image

Photograph by Georg Gerster

Plate tectonics is a scientific theory that explains how major landforms are created as a result of Earth's subterranean movements. The theory, which solidified in the 1960s, transformed the earth sciences by explaining many phenomena, including mountain building events, volcanoes, and earthquakes.

In plate tectonics, Earth's outermost layer, or lithosphere-made up of the crust and upper mantle-is broken into large rocky plates. These plates lie on top of a partially molten layer of rock called the asthenosphere. Due to the convection of the asthenosphere and lithosphere, the plates move relative to each other at different rates, from two to 15 centimeters (one to six inches) per year. This interaction of tectonic plates is responsible for many different geological formations such as the Himalaya mountain range in Asia, the East African Rift, and the San Andreas Fault in California, United States.

The idea that continents moved over time had been proposed before the 20th century. However, a German scientist named Alfred Wegener changed the scientific debate. Wegener published two articles about a concept called continental drift in 1912. He suggested that 200 million years ago, a supercontinent he called Pangaea began to break into pieces, its parts moving away from one another. The continents we see today are fragments of that supercontinent. To support his theory, Wegener pointed to matching rock formations and similar fossils in Brazil and West Africa. In addition, South America and Africa looked like they could fit together like puzzle pieces.

Despite being dismissed at first, the theory gained steam in the 1950s and 1960s as new data began to support the idea of continental drift. Maps of the ocean floor showed a massive undersea mountain range that almost circled the entire Earth. An American geologist named Harry Hess proposed that these ridges were the result of molten rock rising from the asthenosphere. As it came to the surface, the rock cooled, making new crust and spreading the seafloor away from the ridge in a conveyer-belt motion. Millions of years later, the crust would disappear into ocean trenches at places called subduction zones and cycle back into Earth. Magnetic data from the ocean floor and the relatively young age of oceanic crust supported Hess's hypothesis of seafloor spreading.

There was one nagging question with the plate tectonics theory: Most volcanoes are found above subduction zones, but some form far away from these plate boundaries. How could this be explained? This question was finally answered in 1963 by a Canadian geologist, John Tuzo Wilson. He proposed that volcanic island chains, like the Hawaiian Islands, are created by fixed "hot spots" in the mantle. At those places, magma forces its way upward through the moving plate of the sea floor. As the plate moves over the hot spot, one volcanic island after another is formed. Wilson's explanation gave further support to plate tectonics. Today, the theory is almost universally accepted.

Director

Tyson Brown, National Geographic Society

Author

National Geographic Society

Production Managers

Gina Borgia, National Geographic Society

Jeanna Sullivan, National Geographic Society

Program Specialists

Sarah Appleton, National Geographic Society, National Geographic Society

Margot Willis, National Geographic Society

Last Updated

October 19, 2023

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The theory of plate tectonics revolutionized the earth sciences by explaining how the movement of geologic plates causes mountain building, volcanoes, and earthquakes.

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Play this game to explore how plates affect our planet. 1. Click on an orange marker to explore a place on the map. 2. Examine how tectonic plates are moving there. 3. Answer the question and read more about it!

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Lots of good resources on this webpage!

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Find lessons on Plate Tectonics for all grades. Free interactive resources and activities for the classroom and home.

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Explore the boundaries between Earth’s tectonic plates with MapMaker, National Geographic’s classroom interactive mapping tool.

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World: Tectonic Plates, Earthquakes & Volcanoes- Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology

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How are the tectonic plates related to earthquakes and volcanoes? Interactive relief and bathymetric map reveals tectonic plates, as well as world-wide earthquakes and volcanoes.

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The GPlates Portal is a gateway to a series of web pages for the interactive visualisation of cutting-edge geoscience datasets.

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The Quaternary Fault and Fold Database of the United States database contains information on faults and associated folds in the United States that demonstrate geological evidence of coseismic surface deformation in large earthquakes during the past 1.6 million years (Myr).

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US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

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Tectonic shift is the movement of the plates that make up Earth’s crust.

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Pangea for Kids | Learn all about the supercontinent of long ago!

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Plate Tectonics for Kids | Tectonic plates explained

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Earth Science for Kids: Rocks, Rock Cycle, and Formation

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Kids learn about the science of rocks and the rock cycle. How different types such as igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic form from minerals with the help of nature.

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There are three main types of rocks: sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic. Each of these rocks are formed by physical changes-such as melting, cooling, eroding, compacting, or deforming-that are part of the rock cycle.

Sedimentary rocks are formed from pieces of other existing rock or organic material. There are three different types of sedimentary rocks: clastic, organic (biological), and Sedimentary Rocks chemical. Clastic sedimentary rocks, like sandstone, form from clasts, or pieces of other rock. Organic sedimentary rocks, like coal, form from hard, biological materials like plants, shells, and bones that are compressed into rock.

The formation of clastic and organic rocks begins with the weathering, or breaking down, of the exposed rock into small fragments. Through the process of erosion, these fragments are removed from their source and transported by wind, water, ice, or biological activity to a new location. Once the sediment settles somewhere, and enough of it collects, the lowest layers become compacted so tightly that they form solid rock.

Chemical sedimentary rocks, like limestone, halite, and flint, form from chemical precipitation. A chemical precipitate is a chemical compound-for instance, calcium carbonate, salt, and silica-that forms when the solution it is dissolved in, usually water, evaporates and leaves the compound behind. This occurs as water travels through Earth's crust, weathering the rock and dissolving some of its minerals, transporting it elsewhere. These dissolved minerals are precipitated when the water evaporates.

Metamorphic rocks are rocks that have been changed from their original form by immense heat or pressure. Metamorphic rocks have two classes: foliated and nonfoliated. When a rock with flat or elongated minerals is put under immense pressure, the minerals line up in layers, creating foliation. Foliation is the aligning of elongated or platy minerals, like hornblende or mica, perpendicular to the direction of pressure that is applied. An example of this transformation can be seen with granite, an igneous rock. Granite contains long and platy minerals that are not initially aligned, but when enough pressure is added, those minerals shift to all point in the same direction while getting squeezed into flat sheets. When granite undergoes this process, like at a tectonic plate boundary, it turns into gneiss (pronounced "nice").

Nonfoliated rocks are formed the same way, but they do not contain the minerals that tend to line up under pressure and thus do not have the layered appearance of foliated rocks. Sedimentary rocks like bituminous coal, limestone, and sandstone, given enough heat and pressure, can turn into nonfoliated metamorphic rocks like anthracite coal, marble, and quartzite. Nonfoliated rocks can also form by metamorphism, which happens when magma comes in contact with the surrounding rock.

Igneous Rocks Metamorphic Rocks

Igneous rocks (derived from the Latin word for fire) are formed when molten hot material cools and solidifies. Igneous rocks can also be made a couple of different ways. When they are formed inside of the earth, they are called intrusive, or plutonic, igneous rocks. If they are formed outside or on top of Earth's crust, they are called extrusive, or volcanic, igneous rocks.

Granite and diorite are examples of common intrusive rocks. They have a coarse texture with large mineral grains, indicating that they spent thousands or millions of years cooling down inside the earth, a time course that allowed large mineral crystals to grow.

Alternatively, rocks like basalt and obsidian have very small grains and a relatively fine texture. This happens because when magma erupts into lava, it cools more quickly than it would if it stayed inside the earth, giving crystals less time to form. Obsidian cools into volcanic glass so quickly when ejected that the grains are impossible to see with the naked eye.

Extrusive igneous rocks can also have a vesicular, or "holey" texture. This happens when the ejected magma still has gases inside of it so when it cools, the gas bubbles are trapped and end up giving the rock a bubbly texture. An example of this would be pumice.

Director

Tyson Brown, National Geographic Society

Author

National Geographic Society

Production Managers

Gina Borgia, National Geographic Society

Jeanna Sullivan, National Geographic Society

Program Specialists

Sarah Appleton, National Geographic Society, National Geographic Society

Margot Willis, National Geographic Society

Last Updated

October 19, 2023

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The rock cycle is a series of processes that create and transform the types of rocks in Earth's crust.

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The rock cycle - The Earth and atmosphere - KS3 Chemistry - BBC Bitesize

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Rocks can do amazing things. Did you know they can evolve into a different type of rock over milions of years? Discover how with BBC Bitesize.

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Google Arts and Culture: Geology Collection

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Google Arts and Culture: Geology Collection

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Geology is a branch of Earth science concerned with the solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time.

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Most geologists agree that Earth started forming about 4.6 billion years ago. After about 700 million years it had developed a solid crust. Geologists use the words geologic time to describe the vast amount of time that has passed since then. They divide this time into three broad periods, called eons. The two oldest eons are part of what is called Precambrian time. The third eon, which includes present time, is called the Phanerozoic eon. It is divided into three periods called eras-the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic eras.

Geologists learn about these different periods by studying the many layers of rock in Earth's crust. The deepest layers are the oldest. More recent layers are closer to the surface. Each layer contains unique types of rocks and fossils. These give geologists many clues about Earth's history.

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Geology is the study of the physical features and history of Earth. Scientists who work in geology are called geologists. Geology is an important science for many reasons. It...

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You see Abe Lincoln's face. The Grand Canyon. An awesome ancient pyramid. A geologist sees granite, volcanic rock, limestone, and the Earth over millions of years. In other words, rocks.

You can't throw a rock without ... hitting another rock. They're everywhere. Rock creates and shapes the Earth's landscape. It forms our magnificent mountains, shapes the deepest oceans, and safely separates us from the boiling magma beneath our feet! (Okay, technically magma is uber-hot liquid rock. But you don't want to stand on it.)

Water, wind, earthquakes, cold, and heat scour, fracture, move, or melt rock. Rock is continuously being changed, rebuilt, or recycled by the forces of the Earth.

Granite, limestone, marble, and sandstone are examples of kinds of rock. Geologists divide rocks into three large groups: igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary. Lava or magma form igneous rock. Changes in pressure or heat create metamorphic rock. Water and wind create sedimentary rock. (Each rock group includes hundreds of different kinds of rocks.)

Like the world's oldest blog, rock reveals millions of years of events and change. It shares how and when the earth's features, like mountains, oceans, or canyons were shaped. In a way, embedded fossils provide a selfie or picture of the environment at the time the rock was formed. Rock: rockin' the Earth for 4.55 billion years!

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You see Abe Lincoln's face. The Grand Canyon. An awesome ancient pyramid. A geologist sees granite, volcanic rock, limestone, and the Earth over millions of years. In other words, rocks. You can't throw a rock without ... hitting another rock. They're everywhere. Rock creates and shapes the Earth's landscape.

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OneGeology - Education - OneGeology Kids - What is geology?