Paleogeography is the scientific study and reconstruction of past geographic configurations of Earth’s surface, including the distribution of continents, oceans, mountain ranges, basins, and depositional environments through geologic time. It integrates data from plate tectonics, stratigraphy, paleomagnetism, sedimentology, paleontology, and geochronology to infer past positions and movements of tectonic plates and associated paleoenvironments. Paleogeographic reconstructions provide essential boundary conditions for paleoclimate modeling, basin analysis, sediment routing systems, and biogeographic studies, enabling quantitative assessment of how changes in Earth’s surface configuration have influenced climate systems, ocean circulation, biodiversity patterns, and the formation and distribution of natural resources.
The remains of landscapes thought to have formed when ancient rivers flowed across East Antarctica have been discovered—and could help predictions of future loss from the ice sheet.
Earth Sciences
Jul 11, 2025
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251
Sea level on Earth has been rising and falling ever since there was water on the planet. Scientists were already able to use sediments and fossils to roughly reconstruct how sea levels changed over time steps of a million ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 7, 2025
3
1653
Biogeographical regions of marine organisms, i.e., their distribution across different habitats, often overlap well with the major global ocean currents. The geological age of the currents plays a major role in this. The ...
Ecology
Jul 2, 2025
0
41
New images from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover show the first close-up views of a region scientists had previously observed only from orbit. The images and data being collected are already raising new questions about how the ...
Astrobiology
Jun 23, 2025
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60
North America's deepest gorge, Hells Canyon, which slithers along the border of Idaho and Oregon, is a surprisingly new addition to the Earth's ancient landscape. A recent study suggests that a monumental shift in Snake river ...
A new study led by University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh geologist Timothy Paulsen and University of Colorado Boulder thermochronologist Jeff Benowitz advances the understanding of the geologic history of Transantarctic Mountains ...
Earth Sciences
May 30, 2025
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113
What roils beneath Earth's surface may feel a world away, but the activity can help forge land masses that dictate ocean circulation, climate patterns, and even animal activity and evolution. In fact, scientists believe that ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 21, 2025
0
154
A little over 5 million years ago, water from the Atlantic Ocean found a way through the present-day Strait of Gibraltar. According to this theory, oceanic water rushed faster than a speeding car down a kilometer-high slope ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 14, 2025
0
113
A new study reveals the modern arid desert between Africa and Saudi Arabia was once regularly lush and green with rivers and lakes over a period of 8 million years, allowing for the occupation and movements of both animals ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 9, 2025
0
85
The desert that we see today in Arabia was once a region that repeatedly underwent "green" periods in the past, as a result of periods of high rainfall, resulting in the formation of lakes and rivers about 9,000 years ago.
Earth Sciences
Apr 4, 2025
3
2121
