4 individual translucent crystals, about 100 microns tall, viewed with a microscope

Early plate tectonics was surprisingly speedy

Ars Technica August 2023

Precise rock dates and measurements of their ancient magnetic field show that a chunk of Western Australia once raced across the globe at over 64 cm a year.

Image credit: Jennifer Kasbohm

One dinocephalian eating another

Mass extinction event 260 million years ago resulted from climate change, studies say

Ars Technica July 2023

In a lesser-known mass extinction event 260 million years ago, scientists found signs of climate warming, wildfire, floods, ecosystem collapse, & ocean anoxia.

Image credit: Dmitry Bogdanov DiBgd CCBYSA 3.0

Fantasy image of part of a planet against space, rays of light radiating from a thin atmosphere. The planet surface is represented by colored leaves.

The complicated history of how the Earth’s atmosphere became breathable

Ars Technica May 2023

In Earth’s oxygenation, the roles of the biosphere and geosphere were inseparable.

Image credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images

Looking down into a borehole lined with rusty metal, a shiny metal rod attached to a shiny cylinder in the center of the borehole.

Nuclear Waste Borehole Demonstration Center started

Ars Technica March 2023

Collaborators are lined up, but the center is homeless at the moment

Image credit: Deep Isolation

Fantasy sphere of green forest on the left and skyscrapers on the right.

All the ways the most common bit of climate misinformation is wrong

Ars Technica March 2023

Experts in a range of natural cycles explain why modern climate change isn't anything to do with them!

Image credit: Andriy Onufriyenko/Getty Images

3D block extending 5km into the Earth depicting a vertical borehole. 2 close-ups depict seals at the top of the hole and also bentonite surrounding a canister of waste at the bottom of the hole.

Could deep boreholes solve our nuclear waste problem?

Ars Technica February 2023

Boreholes could provide an alternative to centralized mined waste repositories.

Image credit: Sandia Labs

Thin section microscope view of finely-striped gray crystal, surrounded by brown-olive green, white and pale yellow crystals. Color and striping the result of polarized light.

Earth’s long-term climate controlled by just 12% of the landscape

Ars Technica February 2023

New work makes sense of mismatches between the lab and the planet's behavior.

Image credit: Chmee2/Wikimedia CC-by-SA

An ichthyosaur, turtles and fish rise to the surface and gasp for air that is toxic orange-brown

How the world of the end-Triassic extinction was similar to today—and how it differed

Ars Technica February 2023

Past environmental crises let us reverse-engineer how our planet works.

Image credit: Victor Leshyk

Orange drums and a flag hanging over the side of a ship, scientist in yellow jacket and hard hat in foreground.

New imaging finds trigger for massive global warming 56 million years ago

Ars Technica January 2023

56 million years ago, hot magma scorched the sediments under the Atlantic seafloor.

Image credit: PoRoCLIM

Global map of rainfall change due to warming 56 million years ago: green = wetter, brown = drier

New maps of ancient warming reveal strong response to carbon dioxide

Ars Technica October 2022

Past warming hints at rising sensitivity to CO2, widespread changes in rainfall.

Image credit: Tierney et al PNAS