In the arid deserts of Ethiopia, a geological marvel has been quietly unfolding since 2005—a 35-mile-long fissure known as the East African Rift. Far from being a mere curiosity, this rift holds the ...

Continental clues: 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 ...

New evidence from rocks, molecules and machine learning is forcing scientists to redraw the opening chapters of Earth’s story, pushing the first stirrings of biology far closer to the planet’s violent ...