Houchin and his colleagues studied dozens of zircon crystals from the Jack Hills in Western Australia. These are the oldest ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. A new study uncovers how amino acids could have linked with RNA under early Earth conditions, shedding light on the origin of life ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. AI models used ancient zircons to reveal Earth’s earliest crust chemistry, solving a long-standing geologic mystery. (CREDIT: CC ...

Around 2.3 billion years ago, the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE) marked a major turning point in Earth’s history. The increase ...

There are many open questions about how our planet formed 4.55 billion years ago: When did plate tectonics start? When did the Earth's mantle begin to vigorously circulate in a process called ...

Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, possesses a thick, nitrogen-rich atmosphere that bears striking similarities to that of early Earth. Scientists are fascinated by Titan’s atmospheric composition and its ...

Geologists from the University of Hong Kong (HKU) have made a breakthrough in understanding how Earth's early continents formed during the Archean time, more than 2.5 billion years ago. Their findings ...

The study of early Earth microbial life and its associated organic matter provides crucial insights into the origins and evolution of life on our planet. Recent work has illuminated the remarkable ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. We’ve pieced together a remarkably detailed timeline of ...

In Earth’s early days, more than 4 billion years ago, the surface was a dangerous and unpredictable place. Violent volcanoes, crashing meteorites, and constant tectonic activity repeatedly resurfaced ...