Menu Close

Articles on Earth

Displaying 101 - 120 of 168 articles

Earth is really ancient, and humans have only been around for a tiny part of that time. NASA

Curious Kids: how was the Earth made?

All the buildings and the cars and the restaurants, and the phones and even everything that’s inside of you… it all started with an exploding star, billions of years ago.
Photographed on Kangaroo Island, this rock – called a ‘zebra schist’ – deformed from flat-lying marine sediments through being stressed by a continental collision over 500 million years ago. Dietmar Muller

How Earth’s continents became twisted and contorted over millions of years

Giant forces slowly move continents across a viscous layer of the Earth, like biscuits gliding over a warm toffee ocean. This stresses the continents, and twists and contorts the crust.
Mountains keep growing and growing and growing for many millions of years until they are so heavy that they can no longer grow taller, only wider. Photo by Jeff Finley on Unsplash

Curious Kids: how do mountains form?

When I was little, geologists worked out Earth’s surface was made of pieces, like a giant puzzle. Those pieces, called “tectonic plates”, move and bump into each other and mountains form.
The United Nations says people “left behind” include those vulnerable to the effects of climate change, but aren’t the furthest behind those damaging the environment? Here, a man rides a bicycle through a devastated Homs, Syria. Numerous studies say climate change was a factor in record-setting drought, one of several causes of the country’s civil war. AP Photo/Dusan Vranic

‘Leaving no one behind’ conveys a paternalistic approach to development

The United Nations Declaration on sustainable development stresses “leaving no-one behind,” but what about the factors that cause many to be behind in the first place?
People protest the shrinking of Bears Ears National Monument. AP Photo/Rick Bowmer

Why Native Americans struggle to protect their sacred places

Despite the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, passed by the US Congress 40 years ago, Native Americans still struggle to protect public lands where they practice their religions.
Earth experiences constant volcanic activity - here’s Indonesia’s Mount Anak Krakatau (Child of Krakatoa) photographed in July 2018. EPA/AAP

I’ve Always Wondered: Why are the volcanoes on Earth active, but the ones on Mars are not?

Compared to Earth, more “oomph” is required to bring magma to the surface of Mars, and this is probably why we haven’t seen any recent eruptions on the red planet.

Top contributors

More