By many measures, the magnitude 9.0 earthquake that shook Japan a year ago was a record-breaker. It was the largest quake in the country’s written history, the trigger for the worst nuclear accident in 25 years and the costliest natural disaster ever. Amid such superlatives, it’s easy to forget one more: During the Tohoku-oki quake, the seafloor off Japan’s coast wrenched itself farther apart than scientists had ever measured along any seafloor. In places, chunks of ground slipped horizontally past their neighbors by more than 50 meters and vertically by 10 meters. “The earthquake wa... (p. 22)

The existence of these long-sought particles confirms theories about the fusion reactions that power the sun.

Crystal chemistry suggests magma changes quickly before a huge eruption.

A solar flare sets off auroras around the Arctic Circle.

Forget E.T. It’s time to meet the intraterrestrials. They too are alien, appearing in bizarre forms and eluding scientists’ search efforts. But instead of residing out in space, these aliens inhabit a dark subterranean realm, munching and cycling energy deep inside the Earth. Most intraterrestrials live beneath the bottom of the ocean, in an unseen biosphere that is a melting pot of odd organisms, a sort of Deep Space Nine for microbes. Many make their homes in the tens of meters of mud just beneath the seafloor. Others slither deeper, along fractures into solid rock hundreds of meters d... (p. 18)

Chemical reactions deep inside the Earth fuel magma’s gem-laden upward journey. (p. 11)

Biologists document surprising differences among deep-sea animals at hydrothermal vent fields. (p. 5)

Bruce Banner isn’t the only scientist who could crush you with one mighty squeeze. These days, the Hulk’s superhuman strength is matched by researchers who squish all kinds of stuff in superscience experiments. The goal isn’t to save the world from baddies, but to explore new frontiers in the nature of matter. After all, most material in the universe exists at bone-crushing pressures. Think massive stars and planetary cores — realms no comic book fan or other Earth dweller has ever seen. Deep within the planet, rock experiences pressures more than 1 million times as great as the “1... (p. 26)

Chemists synthesize a five-crossing structure centered on chloride. (p. 12)