When the World Seems Awful, I Submerge Myself in the Vastness of the Universe

The Geological Timespan Is Long, and Our Time on Earth Is Short

From the TV remote to the group text to the ghoulish glow of the tablet I should have stowed before curling into bed: The world’s abiding awfulness is always just a click away. It’s as omnipresent as the WiFi it rides like a jet stream. It leaps between fellow citizens—a furrowed brow here, passing comment there—like a pathogen, a mood.

You’re aware, I presume, of what constitutes this awfulness? Of the climate crisis, the democracy crisis, and the election that’ll put both on the line. Of rising income inequality and eroding …

Understanding the History of Fire Can Help Us Fight Today’s Biggest Blazes | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Understanding the History of Fire Can Help Us Fight Today’s Biggest Blazes

Lessons From the Past and Warnings for the Future in 400 Million Years of Geological Record

Charcoal fragments are black, often small, and generally unremarkable. Most people would not realize it if they were to come across one. But over the past 40 years or so, …

Are You Cursed If You Steal Rocks From the Petrified Forest?

A Photographer Ponders Beauty, Truth, and the Guilt of Visitors Who Pilfer Souvenirs From the Arizona National Park

In 2011, I was traveling in Arizona photographing meteorites and the misidentified meteorites known as “meteor-wrongs.” My work with the meteor-wrongs went quicker than expected and my wife and I …

Snapshots of a Human Petri Dish

Surreal Photos Explore Our Anxiety Around Climate Change By Capturing People's Everyday Lives--Underwater

The dreamy, brightly lit photographs and videos of “Holoscenes / Quaternary Suite” at the Pasadena Museum of California Art might remind viewers of glimpses through a ship’s porthole. Sometimes, the …

Geologist Doyle Wilson

He Loves Limestone (and Hates Wasting Water)

Geologist Doyle Wilson has worked for Lake Havasu City for almost 10 years as water resources coordinator. He also teaches part time at ASU Colleges at Lake Havasu. Before participating …

Our Landslides Are Bigger Than Yours

What the Entire World Can Learn From California’s Penchant for Disaster—And Ability to Recover From It

When I was a graduate student at Caltech in the 1960s, my boyfriend and I loved to take a spin up the spectacular, cliff-hanging California Highway 39 that ascends in …