Earth

AlphaEarth Foundations is an AI model developed by Google DeepMind that integrates vast Earth observation data from multiple satellite sources into a unified digital representation. It acts like a 'virtual satellite' by processing complex, multimodal data such as optical, radar, and LiDAR imagery to provide scientists with a nearly real-time, detailed, and consistent view of terrestrial land and coastal waters worldwide. This allows it to overcome challenges like cloud cover and irregular satellite imaging to monitor environmental changes effectively.

AlphaEarth Foundations supports environmental conservation and sustainability by providing detailed geospatial AI models that help monitor global changes such as land use, agricultural patterns, and complex surfaces in difficult regions like Antarctica. It is part of Google Earth AI, which includes models for weather prediction, flood forecasting, and wildfire detection, thereby offering actionable insights to scientists, policymakers, and organizations to address climate change and other critical environmental issues.

An AI foundation model for Earth observation integrates vast amounts of satellite and sensor data into a unified, dense mathematical representation called Earth embeddings. These embeddings compress petabytes of raw data into concise summaries that capture complex environmental features such as land use, vegetation, water flows, and urban areas. This approach enables faster, more accurate, and scalable analysis of the planet’s surface, transforming global mapping and environmental monitoring by making it easier to detect patterns and changes over time.

A detailed, unified map of the Earth provides a common framework and language for scientists, planners, and policymakers to understand ecological patterns and changes. It supports better conservation, resource management, and land planning by integrating diverse data layers such as land cover, climate, and geology into meaningful georeferenced units. This comprehensive view enables more informed decisions to address environmental challenges like deforestation, climate change, and sustainable land use.

The building blocks of life refer to organic compounds such as carbon, nitrogen, amino acids, and nucleobases that form DNA and RNA. These molecules are essential for life and are thought to have formed in the dust surrounding the young Sun before planets existed.

Millimeter-sized dust particles rich in water and carbon could have acted as carriers for organic molecules, forming in dust traps around young stars. These particles grew from tiny grains in protoplanetary disks, where irradiation from the infant star helped convert icy particles into complex organic matter, which may have later been delivered to Earth via meteorites or cosmic dust.

Microorganisms deep underground survive by harnessing energy from chemical reactions rather than sunlight. Specifically, earthquake-driven rock fractures produce hydrogen gas and oxidants by splitting water molecules, providing energy sources that microbes use for metabolism. This process, called chemolithoautotrophy, allows microbes to fix inorganic carbon and sustain life in the absence of sunlight and organic nutrients.

The discovery that deep-Earth microbes can survive by using chemical energy from rock fractures suggests that similar life forms could exist on Mars, where sunlight is scarce and surface conditions are harsh. If Mars has subsurface rock fractures and water, chemical reactions could produce energy sources like hydrogen and oxidants, potentially supporting microbial life underground, reshaping our understanding of where life can exist beyond Earth.

The rhythmic surges of molten mantle rock beneath the Afar Rift are caused by elevated heat flow from the asthenosphere beneath the region, likely related to mantle plume activity. This heat causes uplift, stretching, and fracturing of the continental crust, leading to volcanic activity and the formation of rift valleys.

The discovery of rhythmic surges of molten mantle rock beneath the Afar Rift indicates active thinning and fracturing of Earth's crust in this region. This process is a key stage in continental rifting, which can eventually lead to seafloor spreading and the creation of a new ocean basin, as the African plate splits into smaller tectonic plates.

Earth's magnetic field, generated by the flow of molten material in its core, fluctuates over time and has been found to correlate with changes in atmospheric oxygen levels over the past 540 million years. This connection suggests that the magnetic field may help protect the atmosphere from being eroded by solar particles, thereby influencing oxygen retention and creating conditions favorable for complex life.

Scientists study magnetized minerals in ancient rocks that record Earth's magnetic field when they cool from magma at tectonic plate boundaries. These minerals preserve the magnetic orientation unless reheated. Similarly, the chemical composition of these rocks reflects the atmospheric oxygen present during their formation. By analyzing these records, researchers can reconstruct the history of both Earth's magnetic field and oxygen levels over hundreds of millions of years.

The 'D′′ layer' is a region about 2,700 kilometers beneath the Earth's surface where seismic waves behave differently. It is significant because it involves solid rock that flows horizontally, which affects how seismic waves propagate, indicating a dynamic process deep within the Earth's mantle.

The discovery highlights Earth's dynamic nature, showing that geological activity is not limited to the surface but also occurs deep within the mantle. This movement of solid rock influences surface events like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and may affect the Earth's magnetic field.