Planet Earth

A helium reservoir with the highest concentrations ever seen could hold enough of the gas to address critical shortages in the U.S. affecting tech, medicine and space exploration.

For the first time, researchers have linked the amount of silver being buried in marine sediments to human-made climate change.

Earth from space A 2012 satellite photo captured an unusual "double rainbow" glory appearing next to an unconnected chain of rare vortices in the clouds above Mexico's Guadalupe Island.

Geologists have known for decades that gold forms in quartz with the help of earthquakes, but now they have worked out exactly how the setting and seismic waves combine to form large nuggets.

Defense systems found in all complex life, including the human body, came from primeval microbes known as 'Asgards.'

Researchers have mapped the path of a giant submarine avalanche that tore through the Agadir Canyon — a deep trench in the Atlantic seafloor off the coast of Morocco — 60,000 years ago.

Al Naslaa is a rock formation in Saudi Arabia's northwestern desert consisting of two huge, symmetrical stone blocks that are separated by a mysterious gap and sit on small pedestals.

Over the past 41,000 years, viral communities have varied significantly between cold and warm climatic periods, scientists found.

Scientists are trying to decipher what drove the recent dramatic cooling of the tropical Atlantic, but so far few clues have emerged. "We are still scratching our heads as to what's actually happening," the researchers said.

Earth from space A recent landslide along the banks of a river in British Columbia completely dammed the waterway, leading to evacuation warnings and potentially dooming an endangered fish population trapped on the wrong side of the debris.