Over four millennia ago, in the final days of the Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia, a drought swept over the region, afflicting lands as far away as Greece and what’s now Pakistan. Probably driven by ...

Modern continental rocks carry chemical signatures from the very start of our planet's history, challenging current theories about plate tectonics. Researchers have made a new discovery that changes ...

In 2025, scientists discovered that gold is escaping from Earth's core and the world's oldest rocks may be located in Quebec, ...

Learn about how Earth’s history is written in its rocks with this excerpt from “How to Read a Rock” Jan Zalasiewicz The pine tree, in this age-old relationship, is supported by the rock, and gains ...

Ancient horsetail plants produce water with unusual oxygen isotopes, offering scientists a new tool to reconstruct Earth’s climate history and understand humidity patterns from millions of years ago.

The Great Oxygenation Event, which occurred around 2.4 billion years ago, was one of the biggest transformations of our planet. Before it, there was practically no oxygen in the atmosphere; after, ...