The Earth's interior is composed of four layers, three solid and one liquid—not magma but molten metal, nearly as hot as the surface of the sun. The deepest layer is a solid iron ball, about ...

Giant regions of the mantle where seismic waves slow down may have formed from subducted ocean crust, a new study finds.

A worm burrows its way through the dark earth, ingesting particles of soil and expelling nutrient-rich casts in a constant forage for food. Charles Darwin described earthworms as one of the most ...

A study led by Prof. Chen Hongsong from the Institute of Subtropical Agriculture of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has ...

The layer acts as a skin for the Earth, protecting landscapes and reducing ... Biocrust, also called cryptobiotic soil, is a "community of tiny, dirt-dwelling organisms that form a distinct ...

Brown earth soils are widespread in Britain ... The original vegetation was deciduous forest, resulting in a layer of decaying leaves giving a rich humus. The deep roots of these trees reached ...

Soils are becoming severely degraded due to a combination of intensive farming practices and natural processes. As the layer of fertile topsoil thins, it gets increasingly difficult to grow crops ...