Articles by Christina Larson

Active Volcano Mauna Loa Showed Telltale Warning Signs Before Erupting in 2022

Scientists can’t know precisely when a volcano is about to erupt, but they can sometimes pick up telltale signs. That happened two years ago with the world’s largest active volcano. About two months before Mauna Loa spewed rivers of glowing …

Shipping Containers Are Regularly Lost at Sea. What Happens When They Burst Open?

Russ Lewis has picked up some strange things along the coast of Long Beach Peninsula in Washington state over the years: Hot Wheels bicycle helmets with feather tufts, life-size plastic turkey decoys made for hunters, colorful squirt guns. And Crocs …

Wolves Get Credit for 24% Drop in Deer-Auto Collisions

Ecologist Rolf Peterson remembers driving remote stretches of road in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and seeing areas strewn with deer carcasses. But that changed after gray wolves arrived in the region from Canada and Minnesota. “When wolves moved in during the …

Spring Floods in U.S. Should Be Moderate Compared to Last Year: NOAA

Too often disasters come in threes. But the year of global pandemic and record wildfires in Australia will not also be a year of historic floods in the U.S., forecasters predict. Last year saw record floods in several regions of …

As California Thins Forests to Limit Wildfire Risk, Some Resist

Buzzing chainsaws are interrupted by the frequent crash of breaking branches as crews fell towering trees and clear tangled brush in the densely forested Santa Cruz Mountains south of San Francisco. Their goal: To protect communities such as Redwood Estates, …

China Ride-Hailing Firm, Didi, to Go Global After Record Funding

Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing just raised more than $5.5 billion, giving Uber Technologies Inc. Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick one more thing to worry about. Didi’s record funding round is said to value the company at more than $50 …