Global April temperatures were 13th highest on record; Year-to-date is eighth warmest period on record; North American snow cover was third largest

According to NOAA scientists, April 2013 was also the 37th consecutive April and 338th consecutive month (more than 28 years) with a global temperature above the 20th-century average.

NOAA’s latest mobile app provides free nautical charts for recreational boating

As recreational boaters gear up for a summer of fun on coastal waters and the Great Lakes, NOAA is testing MyNOAACharts, a new mobile application that allows users to download NOAA nautical charts and editions of the U.S. Coast Pilot.

New NOAA report examines national oil pollution threat from shipwrecks

NOAA presented to the U.S. Coast Guard today a new report that finds that 36 sunken vessels scattered across the U.S. seafloor could pose an oil pollution threat to the nation’s coastal marine resources.

Scientists find ancient microbes in Antarctic lake

In one of the most remote lakes of Antarctica, nearly 65 feet (19.8 meters) beneath the icy surface, scientists have uncovered a community of bacteria.

Drygalski Ice Tongue, Antarctica

Take a peek at our latest Earth image of the week. If you like it, download it!

Ice sheet loss at both poles increasing, study finds

An international team of experts has produced the most comprehensive and accurate assessment to date of ice sheet losses in Greenland and Antarctica and their contributions to sea level rise.

Amazon River exhales virtually all carbon taken up by rainforest

Woody plant matter is almost completely digested by bacteria living in the Amazon River. This tough stuff plays a major part in fueling the river's breath. The finding has implications for global carbon models, and for the ecology of the Amazon and the world's other rivers. Until recently, people believed much of the rainforest's carbon floated down the Amazon River and ended up deep in the ocean.

Earth's iron core is surprisingly weak

Researchers have used a diamond anvil cell to squeeze iron at pressures as high as 3 million times that felt at sea level to recreate conditions at the center of Earth. The findings could refine theories of how the planet and its core evolved.

Why we need to put the fish back into fisheries

Overfishing has reduced fish populations and biodiversity across much of the world’s oceans. In response, fisheries are increasingly reliant on a handful of highly valuable shellfish. However, new research shows this approach to be extremely risky.