For roughly 2 billion years of Earth's early history, the atmosphere contained no oxygen, the essential ingredient required for complex life. Oxygen began building up during the period known as the ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. If true, it could negate the need for some theories about the origins of water on Earth and, by extension, explain how Earth had ...

A vast ocean current encircling Antarctica—more powerful than all the world’s rivers combined—played a surprisingly complex role in shaping Earth’s climate.

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: Where Earth got most of its water is a subject of debate, but a new study suggests that the planet’s largest reservoir of hydrogen is not the ocean, ...

South Africa’s exceptionally preserved ancient rocks hold key evidence for the rise ofatmospheric oxygen. Within them, researchers see the disappearance of sulfur mass-independent fractionation, ...