Earth history, as a scientific topic, encompasses the reconstruction and analysis of the planet’s physical, chemical, and biological evolution from its formation ~4.54 billion years ago to the present. It integrates evidence from stratigraphy, geochronology, paleontology, geochemistry, and tectonics to delineate major intervals (eons, eras, periods, epochs) and events, such as crust formation, supercontinent cycles, ocean–atmosphere evolution, biotic radiations, and mass extinctions. Research in earth history focuses on quantifying rates and magnitudes of processes (e.g., plate motions, climate shifts, biogeochemical cycles) and constraining cause–effect relationships that link Earth’s interior, surface environments, and biosphere through deep time.
University of Nebraska–Lincoln's S. Kathleen Lyons is providing a new framework—Earth system engineering—for examining how organisms, including humans, have fundamentally altered ecosystems on a global scale across hundreds, ...
Earth Sciences
Sep 23, 2025
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How did humans become human? Understanding when, where and in what environmental conditions our early ancestors lived is central to solving the puzzle of human evolution.
Earth Sciences
Sep 16, 2025
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New Curtin University research has uncovered a striking link between the structure of our galaxy and the evolution of Earth's crust, showing its development was shaped by the impact of meteorites during its journey through ...
Astronomy
Sep 16, 2025
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122
A study by researchers at the University of Oxford, University of Leeds, and University College London has identified a new constraint on the chemistry of Earth's core, by showing how it was able to crystallize millions of ...
Earth Sciences
Sep 4, 2025
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108
How Earth's atmosphere transformed from oxygen-poor to oxygen-rich over a span of about two billion years has been revealed by an international team of researchers.
Earth Sciences
Aug 28, 2025
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A new international study published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters reveals that the boundaries between geological epochs and periods, even though randomly distributed, follow a hidden, hierarchical pattern. Co-authored ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 25, 2025
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120
The murky world at the bottom of the oceans is now a little clearer, thanks to a new study that tracks the evolution of marine sediment layers across hundreds of millions of years.
Earth Sciences
Aug 11, 2025
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Since the beginning of Earth's history, tiny particles of rock and metal from space have been hitting our planet. On clear nights, we can even see their traces as shooting stars. Trapped in layers of rock, these micrometeorites ...
Astrobiology
Jul 29, 2025
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Geology is full of detective stories about the Earth's history, and a new paper in Geology by University of New Mexico Distinguished Professors Emeritus Karl Karlstrom and Laurie Crossey, along with their co‐authors, links ...
Space Exploration
Jul 15, 2025
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89
Ever been late because you misread a clock? Sometimes, the "clocks" geologists use to date events can also be misread. Unraveling Earth's 4.5-billion-year history with rocks is tricky business.
Planetary Sciences
Jul 10, 2025
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