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EarthDate

EarthDate

De: Switch Energy Alliance
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EarthDate is a short-format weekly audio program delivering concise, science-based stories about the Earth: its geology, environments, and the processes that shape our planet over deep time and today. Beginning in 2026, EarthDate is managed by Switch Energy Alliance and hosted by SEA's founder Dr. Scott W. Tinker. Together, we explore earth systems, natural resources, and their relevance to everyday life, with a focus on clear, accessible science education for broad audiences. EarthDate is written and directed by Emmy-winning filmmaker Harry Lynch, and researched by Lynn Kistler. We search for captivating stories to remind listeners that science can enlighten, educate and entertain.Copyright 2026 EarthDate Ciencia Ciencias Biológicas Ciencias Geológicas
Episodios
  • Riding the Jet Streak

    Riding the Jet Streak
    Mar 23 2026
    When passengers boarded a British Airways flight from New York to London on February 8, 2020, they had no idea they were about to make history. Once their 747 reached cruising altitude, the pilots directed the plane into a jet streak, a fast-moving current of air that sometimes occurs in winter. The streak rocketed the plane to a ground speed of 825 miles an hour, cutting travel time by 25 percent and setting a record for subsonic aircraft making the trip. The surprised passengers arrived in London in less than 5 hours—an hour and 40 minutes ahead of schedule. One hundred EarthDate episodes ago we talked about the jet stream, the west-to-east currents of air that circle the globe. It’s common in winter for the Northern Polar Jet to drift southward into what pilots call the North Atlantic Tracks, the routes they fly from the U.S. to Europe. When other factors, like a storm system, increase its velocity, the jet stream can create jet streaks—rivers of wind more than twice as fast, at up to 250 miles an hour, like the one that carried that February 2020 flight. Faster trips like these save time and fuel and reduce exposure to cosmic radiation for passengers and crew, which happens on any flight. So, if you’re looking for a quick, efficient, safe trip to Europe—and your own chance to land in the record books—plan one for a stormy winter night… but don’t plan to sleep!
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    2 m
  • Equinox Alignments

    Equinox Alignments
    Mar 23 2026
    Around September 23rd and March 20th each year, visitors gather at ancient monuments to witness the equinox. On these two days, day and night are equal everywhere on the planet. The sun rises exactly in the east and sets exactly in the west. Ancient architects, astronomers, and priests collaborated to align many structures with the equinox sun to create spectacular light effects. In a 5,000-year-old underground Celtic temple, the rising sun penetrates a long shaft to light an engraved wall. At a 4,000-year-old Egyptian monument, sunlight travels an east–west hallway to illuminate chosen statues. A thousand-year-old Mayan pyramid casts a shadow in the form of a snake down its entire face, which joins a giant carved serpent head. There are equinox sun alignments at Stonehenge, Machu Picchu, Angkor Wat, and many other ancient places, across nearly every culture. They created these solar light shows to determine and celebrate the autumn equinox—the start of the harvest and shortening days—and the spring equinox—the start of the planting season and a ceremonial time of rebirth. Religious holidays, like Easter, were set according to the equinox and still are. You may not have to travel far to see your own equinox sun alignment. In big cities with exact east–west street grids, the equinox sun rises and sets precisely at the ends of a canyon of skyscrapers. In Chicago, they call it Chicagohenge.
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    2 m
  • Sunspot Strandings

    Sunspot Strandings
    Mar 23 2026
    California gray whales, like several other whale species, migrate from arctic feeding grounds in summer to warm equatorial waters in winter to birth their young. This migration can be more than 13,000 miles—the longest on Earth. Scientists think they may use magnetoreception, navigating according to Earth’s magnetic field. New findings somewhat corroborate that, but with a wrinkle we can’t explain. It’s not uncommon that whales will get lost or injured along the route, strand themselves on the coast, and die. A third of the dead whales found are emaciated, suggesting they starved. Some researchers hypothesize that their population, which, remarkably, has rebounded to pre-whaling numbers, has simply reached the carrying capacity of their environment. Others suggest warming polar seas might be producing less food for them. But some of these dead whales were perfectly healthy and may have simply become disoriented. Scientists wondered why. They studied stranding events going back 30 years and found nearly 200 healthy whales had beached. Looking for correlations, they found this was four times as likely to happen during periods of high sunspot activity. Sunspots that merely disrupted Earth’s magnetic field didn’t appear unusually fatal. But sunspots that also released bursts of radio static seemed to interfere with the whales’ sense of navigation, perhaps blocking their ability to read magnetic signals… Or interfering with some new navigational sense we don’t yet understand.
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    2 m
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