How did humans become human? Understanding when, where and in what environmental conditions our early ancestors lived is central to solving the puzzle of human evolution. Unfortunately, pinning down a ...

Saini Samim receives funding from the Melbourne Research Schorship provided by the University of Melbourne. She has also received funding from the Australian Research Council and the Turkana Basin ...

One of two main craters on Alaska’s Mount Spurr, shown in 1991. Earthquake activity suggests the volcano is close to erupting again in 2025. (Photo by R.G. McGimsey/Alaska Volcano Observatory/U.S.

Tephrochronology is a specialised stratigraphic method that utilises volcanic ash (tephra) layers to synchronise, date and correlate geological, palaeoenvironmental and archaeological sequences. By ...

On May 2, 2008, the Chaitén volcano in Chile awoke with unexpected fury after more than 9,000 years of dormancy. The eruption blasted rocks and ash a dozen miles into the air, and then heavy rainfall ...

If you were lucky 74,000 years ago, you would have survived the Toba supereruption, one of the largest catastrophic events that Earth has seen in the past 2.5 million years. While the volcano is ...