The reappearance of long-forgotten habitats and the resurgence of species unseen for years may not be among the expected effects of a natural disaster. Yet that’s exactly what researchers have found on the sandy beaches of south central Chile, after an 8.8-magnitude earthquake and devastating tsunami in 2010. Their study also revealed a preview of [...]

Corals, trees and marine sediments, among others, are direct evidence of the climate of the past, but they are not the only indicators. Scientists have now interpreted records written in Iraq by Arabic historians for the first time and has made a chronology of climatic events from the year 816 to 1009, when cold waves [...]

The Yellowstone “super-volcano” is a little less super — but more active — than previously thought. Researchers say the biggest Yellowstone eruption, which created the two-million-year-old Huckleberry Ridge deposit, was actually two different eruptions at least 6,000 years apart. Their results paint a new picture of a more active volcano than previously thought and can [...]

Perched atop the sheer coastal cliffs of Ireland’s Aran Islands, ridges of giant boulders have puzzled geologists for years. What forces could have torn these rocks from the cliff edges high above sea level and deposited them far inland? While some researchers contend that only a tsunami could push these stones, new research finds that [...]

Using nature’s beauty as a tourist draw can boost conservation in China’s valued panda preserves, but it isn’t an automatic ticket out of poverty for the human inhabitants, a unique long-term study shows.