Today’s biggest science news: Kilauea lava fountains | Northern Lights forecast | Comet 3I/ATLAS activity
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Rare sacrificial complex discovered in Russia
Russian archaeologists recently discovered a collection of hundreds of horse bridle bits and bronze beads near the burial mounds of high-status nomads dating back to the 4th century BC.
While the artifacts themselves aren’t exactly surprising—after all, these nomadic peoples relied on horses for transportation—collecting them as a sort of “sacrifice” is unusual.
To learn more about this discovery, which curiously included a gold plaque depicting a tiger, see my cover here.
Kristina Killgrove
Japan hit by major earthquake
A magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck the northeastern coast of Japan’s main island, Honshu. The earthquake struck at 11:15 p.m. local time (9:15 a.m. EST).
The earthquake was most intense in Hachinohe City where there was a seismic intensity of 6+ — such intensity means it is “impossible to stand or move without crawling,” according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. explanation of seismic intensity.
Tsunami Info Stmt: M7.6 Hokkaido, Japan region 0615PST December 8: tsunami NOT expected; CA, OR, WA, BC and AKDecember 8, 2025
The U.S. National Tsunami Warning Center tweeted at 9:32 a.m. ET that a tsunami was not expected in California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia or Alaska.
Sophie Berdugo
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Extinction of the “Hobbits”
A drought may have doomed the small ancient human species Homo floresiensisnicknamed “the hobbit”, Live Science contributor Owen Jarus reports.
New research suggests that reduced rainfall could have reduced the population of Stegodon (parents of missing elephants) who H. floresiensis depended on him for food and, in turn, forced the Hobbit to compete with modern humans (us).
H. floresiensis lived in Indonesia for at least 100,000 years ago to about 50,000 years ago. Researchers still have much to learn about these enigmatic ancient humans, whose remains have only been found in a single cave, and it remains unclear whether they interacted with us.
Species generally disappear for several reasons. In the case of H. floresiensisa volcanic eruption may also have been a significant factor in their disappearance.
Read the full story here.
Camera lost in a lava fountain
Hello, science fans! Patrick here to kick off another week of coverage from our science news blog.
that of Hawaii Kilauea Volcano erupted with giant, spectacular lava fountains over the weekend and consumed a US Geological Survey (USGS) camera.
The remote-controlled camera captured his own demise inside Halema’uma’u Crater on Saturday, December 6 as a wall of volcanic debris approached and knocked him offline.
Kilauea Volcano is one of the most active volcanoes in the world and has erupted almost continuously on the Big Island of Hawaii for over 30 years.
This latest activity marks the 38th episode of Kilauea’s summit eruption cycle, which began on December 23, 2024. We saw numerous lava fountains before, but USGS cameras rarely get this close to the action.
Patrick Pester
