Undersea fibre-optic cables for transmitting data can also be used to detect earthquakes and find fault lines offshore

Brexit may seem important right now, but whoever wins the election will be in charge halfway to 2030 – a crucial time in efforts to limit dangerous warming, says Jacob Aron

A combination of cold weather and just the right amount of wave motion has caused strange frozen spheres to cover a Finnish beach

Seven Worlds, One Planet, David Attenborough’s stunning celebration of Earth’s biodiversity, prepares a new generation to save a beautiful world

The ice shelves in eastern Antarctic peninsula seem to have been thinning since around 1700, leaving ice shelves such as Larsen B vulnerable to their recent break-up as human-caused climate change...

Corners of unexpected planetary beauty are revealed in these stunning images on display in The Elevated Eye at Forest Lawn Museum, California

From Etna to Vesuvius, Santorini to Stromboli, volcanoes have long been linked to excellent wines. New book Volcanoes and Wine explores this unlikely terroir

An epic project has worked out how much carbon there is on Earth. The answer is 1.85 billion billion tonnes – and most of it is underground

Preserved microorganisms have been found encased in 3.5-billion-year-old rocks, confirming that single-celled life was thriving early in Earth’s history

Rivers, lakes and forests around the world are being recognised as if they were legal persons. It sounds strange, but could it effectively protect the planet?

Melting and refreezing is turning the absorbent surface snow of Greenland into solid ice, an effect that could contribute to sea level rises

A decade ago, Johan Rockström identified the limits to Earth's life support systems. From chemical polluiton to climate change, we're veering into the danger zone - so why is he (cautiously)...

This rare image shows massive pyrocumulonimbus clouds that form above fires and can funnel as much smoke into the lower stratosphere as moderate volcanic eruptions

Hundreds of scientifically priceless fossils are extracted in horrendous conditions in Myanmar’s amber mines and smuggled over the border for sale in China

The Atacama Desert is one of the most hostile places on Earth, but new microbes arrive there every day on dust grains carried by the wind

A mini ice age that lasted 125 years started in the 6th century. Now we may have identified the volcano that kicked it all off

Diamonds that formed twice as deep as normal contain evidence of a pristine hunk of original Earth rock hiding deep underground

How did animal life begin? A must-see exhibition in Oxford brings together the world's best fossils from the Cambrian explosion to tell the story

Interstellar dust has been found in Antarctic snow samples. The discovery could provide a way of mapping the clouds of dust Earth has passed through in space

Contrary to recent reports, new research suggests the next reversal of Earth’s magnetic pole won’t happen in a human lifetime and could take tens of thousands of years