Researchers mapped a pulsing mantle plume under Afar that channels molten rock upward, stretching Africa’s crust until it cracks and an ocean basin begins.

Researchers have discovered a dramatic and unexpected shift in the Southern Ocean, with surface water salinity rising and sea ice in steep decline.
Since 2015, Antarctica has lost sea ice equal to the size of Greenland—the largest environmental shift seen anywhere on Earth in the last decades. The Southern Ocean is also getting saltier, and this unexpected change is making the problem worse.
For decades, the ocean’s surface freshened (becoming less salty), helping sea ice grow. Now, scientists say that trend has sharply reversed.
Learning “universal representations” of life’s fundamental unit