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An analysis of lunar craters has found that we’ve been living in a relatively violent period in cosmic history.
Subatomic particles called muons are thought to have streamed through the atmosphere and irradiated megafauna like the monster shark megalodon.
Dark matter may occasionally interact with minerals in the earth, leaving telltale tracks that physicists hope to decipher.
Planetary geologist Meenakshi Wadhwa uses Martian meteorites to trace the history of our solar system.
Simple physical principles can be used to describe how rivers grow everywhere from Florida to Mars.
Water-bearing minerals reveal that Earth’s mantle could hold more water than all its oceans. Researchers now ask: Where did it all come from?
Life needs more than water alone. Recent discoveries suggest that plate tectonics has played a critical role in nourishing life on Earth. The findings carry major consequences for the search for life elsewhere in the universe.
A series of fossil finds suggests that life on Earth started earlier than anyone thought, calling into question a widely held theory of the solar system’s beginnings.
Jason Morgan developed the theory of plate tectonics in 1967 while working among a critical mass of talented geophysicists at Princeton University.