Nature Reviews Earth & Environment - Understanding how Earth’s atmosphere and hydrosphere formed and evolved could help to explain how Earth became, and remains, habitable. This Review...

The defining signature of the past 6,000 years of human civilization is the domestication of the hydrosphere—capturing, damming, canalizing, reorienting, propertizing, privatizing, consuming…

Originally published on June 11, 2026. The defining signature of the past 6,000 years of human civilization is the domestication of the hydrosphere—capturing, damming, canalizing, reorienting, propertizing, privatizing, consuming, profiting from, depleting, and poisoning it. From ancient hydraulic civilizations to the hydro-powered superdams, reservoirs, canals, and ports of the 21st century, water has been repurposed for humanity, often at the expense of millions of other species that depend on it. Harnessing the hydrosphere has shaped societies and the distinctiveness of cultures across history. The design of hydraulic infrastructure has partially fated societies to the entropic costs that led to their demise—and sometimes collapse. Unlike in the past, the entropic consequences of water use during the fossil-fuel-based Industrial Revolution—the water-energy nexus—have eclipsed localities, regions, and continents, propelling Earth into the sixth extinction of life. Now, the hydrosphere is freeing itself, spasming in ways unimaginable half a century ago. Waters are breaking loose as Earth warms, altering water cycles and producing effects humans can scarcely manage. A conversation is beginning about mobilizing collective efforts to free the waters and allow the hydrosphere to self-evolve. These responses are admirable and imperative, reflecting our learning to let go of infrastructural restraints imposed over centuries...

The Varunastra (Sanskrit: वरुणास्त्र, romanized: Varuṇāstra, lit. “Astra of Varuna”) is the characteristic celestial weapon (astra) of the Hindu god of the hydrosphere, Varuna. In Indian scriptures…

Lakes may look like picturesque stopping points along a river or stream, but they can have a big influence on what happens to carbon as it moves through a landscape. New research suggests that the mor...

A.17 Hydrosphere solicits research on the Earth's Hydrosphere: to advance the understanding of the physics of Earth’s water across the ocean, land, and the

A.17 Hydrosphere solicits research on the Earth’s Hydrosphere: to advance the understanding of the physics of Earth’s water across the ocean, land, and the atmosphere. This Hydrosphere element is composed of three Earth science disciplines: ocean physics, terrestrial hydrology, and precipitation science. The overlapping goals of are to address fundamental questions about the distribution, movement, […] The post Amendment 72: New Opportunity: A.17 Hydrosphere appeared first on NASA Science.

The most important quest in Mars exploration is the search for biosignatures.