Planet Earth

The number varies from a dozen to almost 100 — and most of these don't even appear on official maps.

Scientists disagree about the timing of the Taupō volcanic eruption — one of the largest on Earth in the past 5,000 years — but shards of glass discovered in Antarctic ice could settle this debate.

A long-lost tectonic plate dubbed 'Pontus' that was a quarter of the size of the Pacific Ocean was discovered by chance by scientists studying ancient rocks in Borneo.

Porous rock that formed during one of Earth's biggest volcanic eruptions absorbed so much water as it eroded that it created a huge reservoir over the eons, now buried deep in Earth's crust.

A huge methane leak discovered in the Baltic Sea spans 7.7 square miles, with masses of gas bubbles rising almost all the way to the ocean surface.

A new ore, dubbed niobobaotite, was discovered in Inner Mongolia's Bayan Obo deposit and contains the rare earth element niobium — a valuable metal that acts as a superconductor and could revolutionize battery technology.

Scientists have fully mapped the lost continent of Zealandia in a world first, discovering new details about how it broke away from the supercontinent Gondwana through the ignition of a huge volcanic region tens of millions of years ago.

The center of Earth lies around 4,000 miles beneath our feet — but what lies beneath the outer crust and the inner core?

Satellite data shows that this year's ozone hole grew to around twice the size of Antarctica. Researchers say the eruption of Tonga's underwater volcano early last year may be partially to blame for the enormous cavity.

Atoms within the enormous ball of iron in Earth's inner core may move around much more than previously thought, which could explain recent findings about the core's surprising softness.