Earth

Geologists have studied tiny fluid impurities in diamonds to figure out how old humanity’s favorite rocks might be. They identified three periods of diamond formation in Africa over billions of years, with intriguing implications for ancient Earth.

Scientists have mapped ‘atmospheric rivers’ in Earth’s atmosphere that are responsible for transporting huge quantities of potentially dangerous aerosols around the planet, which eventually descend and impact air quality.

A new study has revealed that Earth’s glaciers have lost a staggering amount of ice over the last two decades, and the rate of loss is accelerating. The global effort used satellite data to track the deteriorating condition of some 220,000 glaciers.

One of the main goals of NASA’s Perseverance rover is to scour the surface of Mars for signs of ancient microbial life. But a new study of the geochemistry of the Red Planet suggests that life could still be thriving below its surface today.

Scientists have developed a new satellite data based early warning technique that could one day be used to predict volcanic eruptions years before they take place, and help decide which volcanoes should be fitted with sensitive monitoring equipment.

Geologists have pieced together an uncertain part of Earth’s ancient history. A team in Australia has found new evidence that suggests the cycle of supercontinents forming and breaking up only started about two billion years ago.

How life got started on Earth is one of science's most profound mysteries. Now scientists have found that lightning strikes could have contributed a key ingredient, which suggests it could be easier than we thought to spark life on other planets.

Some scientists speculate that for a while Earth's surface was one big ocean of magma. Now, a team of Cambridge researchers has found elusive evidence from that time, dredged up from an ancient crystal graveyard at the fringe of the mantle and core.

Computer simulations have revealed that a hostile, tidally locked exoplanet roughly 45 light-years from Earth is capable of hosting tectonic activity — which is one of the key processes that contributes to making a world habitable — on a huge scale.

Scientists have found evidence of a “space hurricane” for the first time. The storm, made up of swirling clouds of plasma, raged in Earth’s upper atmosphere for hours, dumping huge amounts of electrons like rain in a system that resembles a regular hurricane.

A new study has found that in about a billion years’ time, Earth will rapidly lose most of its atmospheric oxygen, returning to how it was billions of years ago. This may have important implications in the search for life on other planets.

An ancient tree fossil has offered scientists a peek into a moment 42,000 years ago when the Earth’s magnetic field went haywire. The study paints a picture of environmental chaos, influencing everything from an increase in cave paintings to the extinction of the Neanderthals.