Study of a stalagmite in a Grand Canyon cave reveals early Holocene climate in the southwestern United States

The Grand Canyon’s valleys and millions of years of rock layers spanning Earth’s history have earned it a designation as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. But, according to a new UNLV study, its marvels extend to vast cave systems that lie beneath the surface, which just might hold clues to better understand the future of climate change — by studying nature’s past.

The Grand Canyon's valleys and millions of years of rock layers spanning Earth's history have earned it a designation as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. But, according to a new UNLV study, its marvels extend to vast cave systems that lie beneath the surface, which just might hold clues to better understand the future of climate change—by studying nature's past.

As Arizona ends one of its driest monsoons on record, many may wonder how climate change is affecting the source of one-third to one-half of the state’s rainfall.

Researchers hoping to gain understanding of future groundwater volume in the arid Colorado Plateau looked back nearly 12,000 years to see how higher temperatures affected monsoon rains.

A lot of the time, when someone mentions the University of Nevada Las Vegas, they’re speaking of its renowned School of Hospitality, its fast-growing medical school or its Jerry Tarkanian-era men’s basketball teams. But UNLV is also one of the nation’s top research universities, awarded an R1 classification (“very high research activity”) from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Join the Weekly as we peek into the laboratories where world-changing scientific research is ongoing.

A lot of the time, when someone mentions the University of Nevada Las Vegas, they’re speaking of its renowned School of Hospitality, its fast-growing medical school or its Jerry Tarkanian-era men’s basketball teams. But UNLV is also one of the nation’s top research universities, awarded an R1 classification (“very high research activity”) from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Join the Weekly as we peek into the laboratories where world-changing scientific research is ongoing.

A lot of the time, when someone mentions the University of Nevada Las Vegas, they’re speaking of its renowned School of Hospitality, its fast-growing medical school or its Jerry Tarkanian-era men’s basketball teams. But UNLV is also one of the nation’s top research universities, awarded an R1 classification (“very high research activity”) from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Join the Weekly as we peek into the laboratories where world-changing scientific research is ongoing.

Conservation efforts for Lake Mead appear to be helping, though there's still work to be done.

Humans began to alter environments long before records were kept of the things that lived in them, making it difficult for scientists to determine what healthy ecosystems should look like. The researchers have now shown that the recent fossil record preserves an authoritative snapshot of marine environments as they existed before humans.

As we plunge into Earth’s sixth stage of mass extinction (that we are aware of), biologists looking to conserve and restore ecosystems that have been stripped of plant and animal life can face a pretty daunting task. However, help is on the way in the form of some of the ocean’s worms, mollusks, and crabs. A study published July 11 in the journal PeerJ, finds that fossils from these groups are actually preserved in the fossil record in proportion to their diversity, making for a solid source of information about past ecosystems.

Around 1,800 miles beneath your feet lies a giant, blazing-hot ball of metal. It's the innermost part of our planet, Earth's core. It has a profound impact on your life, though none of us can even glimpse this impossibly remote, hostile place. The core is about the size of Pluto, yet scientists found that distant world in our solar system nearly a century ago, before discovering proof of the core.