An international team of scientists has analyzed a lengthy core of ice and snow drilled from atop Europe's tallest mountain to produce the first century-long record of uranium concentrations in a high-altitude environment. (p. 303)

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration offers an amazing library of more than 16,000 spectacular images, organized into a variety of topical sets. You can browse image collections devoted to coastlines, fisheries, ships, polar regions, severe storms, undersea research, nature reserves, flight, geodesy, coral reefs, and many other subjects.Go to: http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/ .

Scientists say that a narrow region that rims the southern edge of the Tibetan Plateau could be the spawning grounds for large earthquakes that could threaten millions in southern Asia in the decades to come. (p. 191)

Scientists have used the principles of quantum physics to answer the long-standing puzzle of why seismic waves travel at different speeds in different directions across Earth's inner core. (p. 191)

Ocean-floor sediments drilled from Antarctic regions recently covered by ice shelves suggest that those shelves were much younger than scientists had previously thought. (p. 150)

Better measurements of one of the rates of radioactive decay used to date extremely old rocks open up the possibility that Earth may have had a crust as many as 200 million years earlier than previously thought. (p. 127)