It might only have a subtle effect, but it's still measurable: the distribution of Earth's glacial ice has an impact on how the planet spins, both in terms of the speed of our blue sphere's rotation, and in the slow wobble that the Earth's axis makes over it's 26,000-year circle around the sky.

A recent study has unveiled a new perspective on the ancient eruptions that formed the region now known as the Snake River Valley in Idaho and the Yellowstone Caldera in Wyoming. The study, conducted out of the University of Leicester, found that there were far fewer individual eruptions over the 8-to-12 million-year span that formed the region's...