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The HBO series, Game of Thrones, the television adaptation of the book series, A Song of Ice and Fire, has captured the imagination of over 24 million viewers for the last four years. Though the show takes place in the fictional seven kingdoms of Westeros, there are parts of the show that can be paralleled to Earth science today.

Caribou, North America’s wild reindeer, have lives apart from their famous role on Christmas Eve. Reindeer, of course, is another common name for caribou (Rangifer tarandus) a large, cold-adapted, herding herbivore related to deer, elk and moose

The U.S. Geological Survey released its highest-resolution geologic map of Mars today, and it is the most detailed representation of the Red Planet to date

The Christmas flood of 1964 encompassed about 200,000 square miles, or roughly the size of France, resulted in 47 deaths, left thousands homeless and caused more than $540 million ($3.9 billion today) worth of damage.

When sea otters want to rest, they wrap a piece of kelp around their body to hold themselves steady among the rolling waves. Likewise, California’s sea otter numbers are holding steady against the many forces pushing against their population recovery, according to the latest field survey led by federal, state, aquarium, and university scientists.

Migratory birds provide ecosystem benefits that include pest control, pollination of plants and serve as food sources for other wildlife.  They are also a source of recreation for millions of bird watchers and enthusiasts who provide food and design backyard habitats to attract a variety of species throughout the year.

Wind energy is one of the fastest-growing sectors of renewable energy in the United States.  About 3% of the total electricity in the United States was generated by wind turbines in 2012 (according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration), which is equivalent to the annual electricity use for about 12 million households.

Listing of archived Featured Stories (previously called "Top Stories") from 2013 and prior.

On May 9, 2013, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere officially passed the 400 parts per million mark, an atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide not seen in more than 800,000 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

On April 30, 2013, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) released an updated oil and gas resource assessment for the Bakken Formation and a new assessment for the Three Forks Formation in North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana.  The assessments found that the formations contain an estimated mean of 7.4 billion barrels (BBO) of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil.  The updated...

Coal is an important fuel source in the United States today. Responsible for approximately 39 percent of the country’s electrical generation, coal is vital to the day-to-day operation of people’s lives.