Posted inArt, Stone Age Archaeology

Ancient Sunstones Found in Denmark Are Neolithic Sacrifices to Revive the Sun After a Volcanic Eruption

Throughout human history, volcanic eruptions have wreaked havoc on civilizations, causing drastic climatic shifts, failed harvests, and societal turmoil. One such event, in 43 BCE, saw an Alaskan volcano release massive amounts of sulfur into the atmosphere, plunging the Mediterranean into a period of agricultural collapse and famine. Recent evidence suggests that a similar catastrophic […]

Posted inBronze Age Archaeology

Human Footprints from the Bronze Age Left by People Fleeing a Vesuvian Eruption and Other Extraordinary Discoveries in Campania

During improvement works on the Diramazione Nocera-Cava dei Tirreni gas pipeline in the municipalities of Nocera Superiore, Nocera Inferiore, Roccapiemonte, and Castel San Giorgio (province of Salerno, Campania) in Italy, an impressive archaeological legacy has come to light, spanning from the Bronze Age to Late Antiquity. These discoveries, the result of meticulous research conducted over […]

Posted inScience

Volcanic Eruptions Didn’t Doom the Dinosaurs: Fossil Molecules Reveal Meteorite Came 30,000 Years Later

For decades, scientists have debated the causes behind the mass extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. While the Chicxulub meteorite impact has been widely regarded as the primary culprit, massive volcanic eruptions in India, known as the Deccan Traps, were also considered a potential factor. New research, however, reveals that […]

Posted inClassical Archaeology

The Controversial Date of Pompeii’s Destruction: August 24th, as Pliny the Younger Wrote, Remains the Most Probable

In the vast network of historical and scientific debates, few enigmas have sparked as much fascination as the exact date of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that buried the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79 AD. This catastrophic event continues to be a subject of study and controversy among archaeologists, historians, and natural science […]

Posted inGeography

The Spectacular Mud Volcanoes of Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, located between the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus Mountains, is home to hundreds of active mud volcanoes. Locally known as “yanardagh”, which means “burning mountain”, these volcanoes regularly expel mud, water, gases, and flames, creating a spectacular landscape. Mud volcanoes exist on almost every continent. It is estimated that Azerbaijan has around 400 mud […]

Posted inScience

Easter Island findings change everything we know about the Earth’s mantle and how it moves beneath the crust

Traditionally, textbooks have described the mantle as a viscous, well-mixed layer that shifts along with tectonic plates, much like a conveyor belt. This theory has been a cornerstone of geology for nearly a century but has been notoriously difficult to prove. Now, a study by geologists from Cuba, Colombia, and the Netherlands is challenging that […]

Posted inScience

A Mountain That Sank Millions of Years Ago off the Coast of Lanzarote May Have Inspired the Myth of Atlantis

A team of researchers, led by the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain (IGME-CSIC), has made a significant discovery in the waters of the North Atlantic, specifically in the region north of the Canary Islands. During a research campaign conducted aboard the oceanographic vessel Sarmiento de Gamboa, three new underwater volcanoes were identified, which have […]

Posted inClassical Archaeology

Discoveries at Pompeii Suggest Another Natural Disaster Made Vesuvius Eruption Even More Deadly

The tragic demise of Pompeii’s inhabitants during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD has long been attributed mainly to volcanic causes such as ashfall and hot gases. However, recent research indicates this may not be the full story. Volcanologists, geologists, and anthropologists have shifted their focus to the potential impact of concurrent earthquakes. […]

Posted inMiddle Ages, Science

Icebergs in Constantinople and a Frozen Black Sea: Climate Anomalies Triggered by Eruptions in Iceland at the Beginning of the Middle Ages

It was one of the coldest winters the region has experienced: in the year 763, large areas of the Black Sea froze, and icebergs were seen in the Bosphorus. Contemporary historians recorded this unusual weather phenomenon during the winter of 763/764 in their accounts of Constantinople, now Istanbul. Now, an international and interdisciplinary study conducted […]