Miao Zhang

In 2023, the ocean off the coast of Peru warmed so much that fishermen came back empty-handed, while meteorologists argued over the strength of the upcoming El Niño. The sea surface temperature map they were looking at was the only one available, but how much could they trust it?

Seismologists catch every underground tremor the way a doctor listens to a heart. But small earthquakes have weak and fuzzy signals: it's hard to tell exactly where the rock shifted. Usually, scientists look at the first wave motions: compression or dilation. But if the tremor starts gently, without a sharp snap, the picture gets blurred.