Piton de la Fournaise or “Peak of the Furnace” on Reunion Island is one of the world’s most active volcanoes, shown erupting in August 2015.
AAP/NewZulu/Vincent Dunogué
What happens beneath the surface before a volcano erupts? Can we predict when one will blow? And how can typhoons and melting glaciers contribute to big eruptions?
What can what’s on the moon tell us about our home planet?
NASA
The moon might harbor bits of the Earth that blasted off our planet billions of years ago. These lunar time capsules could hold secrets about conditions here at home back when life was first emerging.
Seismic activity and poor buildings have come together again with fatal consequences.
Our solar system is far from empty. A rogue asteroid or comet may have been responsible for the largest impact site yet discovered in Warburton in central Australia.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
This year marks the 200th anniversary since William Smith published his life’s work, a geological map of England and Wales, in 1815. While “Strata Smith” and his map are well-known among geologists, this…
This lot survived rapid global warming – so why can’t we?
Jay Matternes / Smithsonian Museum
It is often said that humans have caused the Earth to warm at an unprecedented rate. However researchers have discovered another period, some 55m years ago, when massive volcanic eruptions pumped so much…
How many continents can you count on one hand?
Chones
From the 1950s until recently, we thought we had a clear idea of how continents form. Most people will have heard of plate tectonics: moving pieces on the surface of the planet that collide, pull away…
Anthropocene landscapes are different places to what has gone before.
Craig Mayhew/Robert Simmon/NASA
Just over ten years ago the Nobel Prize-winning atmospheric scientist Paul Crutzen coined the term “Anthropocene” for a globe totally transformed and dominated by humans, a state he suggested we were in…
Nailing down the sites of ancient volcanic eruptions could help identify mineral deposits.
Ásgeir Kröyer/Flickr
Volcanic eruptions are as old as the planet itself. They inspire awe, curiosity and fear and demonstrate the dynamic internal activity of the Earth. However, the impact of modern volcanoes pales in comparison…
Three new volcanoes have been discovered in the Newer Volcanics Province (NVP) in Victoria and South Australia, a region…
Much of Tasmania’s World Heritage has been sculpted by ice. The extension to the area (currently under debate) adds to all these values.
Simon Lieschke/Flickr
The debate around Tasmania’s controversial World Heritage extension, under review this week at international talks in Doha, has centred on forests. But the area includes far more than “just” trees — including…
The Grand Canyon of Mars – Valles Marineris.
NASA,Viking Project,USGS
The canyon-like scars which line Mars’ crust are seen by many as evidence for liquid water. But a study now suggests that a different kind of fluid – one much less hospitable to life – may actually have…
We live in a ‘wide brown land’ – but we need to figure out how to use it sustainably.
Duncan Rawlinson
AUSTRALIA 2025: How will science address the challenges of the future? In collaboration with Australia’s chief scientist Ian Chubb, we’re asking how each science discipline will contribute to Australia…
Hydrothermal vents: nurseries for life on Earth?
Wolfgang Staudt/Flickr
Scientists have simulated the electrical energy produced in the Earth that may have led to life 3.5 billion years ago. Using a fuel cell, researchers from the University of Leeds and NASA’s Jet Propulsion…
In January 2011, aboard a scientific drilling ship in the Pacific Ocean, I witnessed an enigmatic green flash before sunrise. This optical phenomenon has been recorded to occur if the conditions are just…
Geologists are using drones to help extract more resources from the North Sea, using the latest visual technologies to identify oil-bearing rocks. Using an eight-rotor, camera-equipped “octocopter” drone…