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6 new things we learned about the Earth in 2025

David BenjaminDecember 31, 2025

Billions of years ago, Earth was uninhabitable. Our planet has gone through a number of phases – such as a period when it rained for millions of years almost non-stop. It has been a snowball, covered in magma, and now is flourishing with life. Advances in science allow us to slowly discover more about about our home planet, and here’s a few things we learned in 2025… (Picture: Getty)

1. We found the planet’s oldest known rock

In northern Quebec, a rocky outcrop has the oldest known surviving fragments of Earth’s crust. The discovery means that researchers can do further examination of the rock formation and any fossils it contains. The rock is a remnant of the ancient ocean floor, called the Nuvvuagittuq outcrops, and dates to 4.16 billion years ago, making it the only rock determined to be from the first of four geological eons in our planet’s history: the Hadean. (Picture: University of Ottawa)

2. Will-o’-the-wisps origins

Also known as microlightning, the eerie glowing light spotted over bogs, swamps and marshes which have inspired folklore and ghost stories. Researchers had not been able to figure out the cause of the flickering phenomenon. Theories included static electricity, swarming insects, birds carrying glowing fungus or lightning that ignites swamp gas. But now, research has found that tiny flashes of lightning ignite microscopic bubbles of methane. The microlightning comes from electrically charged bubbles of water that interact with methane to produce the flashes of light. (Picture: Getty)

3. Earth may be trapped in a void

Earth and the rest of the Milky Way could be floating in a billion-light-year-wide cosmic void. Researchers looked at the echoes left by the ‘soundwaves’ of the Big Bang and a team of astronomers discovered that our corner of the universe could be far emptier than we first thought. If the Milky Way is trapped in a vast, empty void, it would solve the Hubble Tension (the fact that the speed at which the universe is expanding changes depending on how you measure it). (Picture: Getty)

4. The magnetic north pole is shifting

The magnetic north pole’s position is determined by Earth’s magnetic field, which is in constant motion. Over the past few decades, magnetic north’s movement dramatically sped up before rapidly slowing from 2015. Scientists can’t explain the underlying cause behind the magnetic field’s unusual behaviour. In 1990, its movement accelerated, increasing from 9.3 miles (15 kilometers) per year to 34.2 miles (55 kilometers) per year but from around 2015, the drift slowed to about 21.7 miles (35 kilometers) per year. Scientists expect that the drift toward Russia will continue to slow, though there is some uncertainty about how long the slowdown will persist. (Picture: Getty)

5. We found the deepest known animal ecosystem

When geochemist Dr Mengran Du dived deep into an trench that lies between Russia and Alaska, she noticed ‘amazing creatures’ including various species of clam and tube worm that had never been recorded at such extreme depths. The organisms that lived down there use the chemical compound methane instead of sunlight to survive. The creatures live 5,800 to 9,500 meters (19,000 to 30,000 feet) below the ocean’s surface in what’s called the hadal zone. Researchers say that microbes living in the ecosystem convert organic matter in the sediments into carbon dioxide, and carbon dioxide into methane (Picture: Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering, CAS (IDSSE, CAS)/Handout via REUTERS)

6. Sunken worlds

Beneath the surface of the sea researchers have discovered that the remnants of supercontinents hidden deep within the mantle – the large zone beneath the planet’s thin crust – are older than previously thought. Research suggests the rocky mantle isn’t as uniformly blended by Earth’s internal churning as once believed. In fact, there are many hidden structures, such as these ancient tectonic plates, that may shape activity in the mantle and on Earth’s crust in ways yet to be understood. (Picture: Getty)

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