News archive

Magnetic field data from NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft are providing new insights into the circulation of the Martian atmosphere. Researchers at ETH Zurich have reconstructed a global system of vortices that agrees with predictions from atmospheric models.

Scientists have identified two previously unknown iron-bearing minerals that could store water deep inside the Earth. The minerals are stable under the extreme conditions near the boundary between the mantle and the core and may have preserved water since the planet’s early history.

For decades, models of Earth’s interior have relied on a mineral that had never been measured under the conditions in which it actually exists. New measurements now show that most of the lower mantle may contain far less of this mineral than previously thought.

A rare meteorite, recovered within minutes of its fall, has revealed that salty, mineral-rich fluids once circulated inside a primitive asteroid. Researchers at ETH Zurich helped reconstruct the rock's journey through space.

Researchers from ETH Zurich and UCLA have uncovered the first convincing geological evidence that Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, preserves a tectonic record of its early tidal despinning.

Scientists have uncovered new evidence from one of Earth’s most extreme ancient warming events, revealing how the climate may recover long after human-driven CO₂ emissions cease.

Active faults do more than uplift mountains: they weaken rocks over distances of up to 100 kilometres, making landscapes erode easier than previously thought.

Hidden within volcanic rocks from Hawaii, Iceland and Samoa lies a chemical relic from the earliest history of our planet.

About a million years ago, a slowdown in North Atlantic ocean circulation intensified and prolonged ice ages. The findings may also sharpen predictions of how ocean currents could shape future climate change.