Reconstruction of the ancient environment at the Highlands trace fossil site about 183 million years ago.
Artwork by Akhil Rampersadh. Heterodontosaurid silhouette is courtesy of Viktor Radermacher.
The term Anthropocene - previously known only to geologists and academics - has hit the mainstream. Now it’s being tweeted as shorthand for the negative effects humans have had on the planet.
The ancient landscape at Yarrabubba preserves traces of the world’s oldest known asteroid impact.
Shutterstock
We undertook a 28-day voyage to explore a possible lost continent in a remote part of the Coral Sea, in an area off the coast of Queensland. Here’s what we found.
Titan imaged in the near infrared by the Cassini orbiter on November 13, 2015.
NASA/JPL/University of Arizona/University of Idaho
Saturn’s largest moon has been fully mapped for the first time.
A polar bear wandering on melting pack ice in Canada, north of the Arctic Circle, during the summer 2017. Scientists say the last interglacial offers lessons for future sea level rise.
Florian Ledoux/The Nature Conservancy
Antarctica is no longer the sleeping giant of sea level rise. New research delved into the past and found when the Earth warms, its ice sheets can melt extremely quickly.
The muck that’s been accumulating at the bottom of this lake for 20,000 years is like a climate time capsule.
Christopher R. Moore
Why did Earth’s climate rapidly cool 12,800 years ago? Evidence is mounting that a comet or asteroid collision is to blame, with new support coming from the bottom of a South Carolina lake.
People have been modifying Earth – as in these rice terraces near Pokhara, Nepal – for millennia.
Erle C. Ellis
Ben Marwick, University of Washington; Erle C. Ellis, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Lucas Stephens, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology et Nicole Boivin, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology
Hundreds of archaeologists provided on-the-ground data from across the globe, providing a new view of the long and varied history of people transforming Earth’s environment.
Good news – underground aquifers could be a reliable source of drinking water in sub-Saharan Africa even as the climate warms.
Micha Berry of the city of Fresno, Calif., which relies heavily on groundwater for its drinking water supply, repairs a groundwater well pump in 2013.
AP Photo/Gosia Wozniacka
Debra Perrone, University of California, Santa Barbara et Scott Jasechko, University of California, Santa Barbara
Millions of Americans rely on groundwater for their lives and livelihoods, but regulation is piecemeal. A new study maps groundwater wells nationwide and finds that they are drilling steadily deeper.
Every day about 50 tons of rocks from space fall on Earth. An examination of these meteorites has inspired a new theory about how exactly these rocks formed.
The town of Schalkenmehren and its adjoining maar lake, Germany.
Wikimedia Commons
A maar is a volcanic crater, often filled with water. New research highlights the similarities between oral stories around the world that shed light on the formation of these craters.