The Grand Canyon is a gigantic geological library, with rocky layers that tell much of the story of Earth’s history.

This story originally published in the July 1906 issue of National Geographic magazine. See more digitized stories from our archives here. Looking back to that period, many years ago, when the finger ...

The Library of Lost Maps” begins in this way, with a suitably romantic discovery that evokes the musty, analog nature of the ...

With so many coral reefs bleaching and pangolins being poached, it may seem tone-deaf to call for the conservation of species that are too small to see with the naked eye. But that’s exactly what the ...

The winners of the 51st annual Nikon Small World photo contest offer a glimpse at some of the tiniest—and most beautiful—parts of the natural world. Spheres of Volvox algae colonies contained within a ...

Highlighting the best wildlife photography across land and sea, see some of the winning photos from this year's Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest. South African photographer Wim van den Heever ...

This fall, every full moon will be a supermoon. Here’s how often it happens—and why. A super “blue” moon rises above Monsaraz Castle in Portugal’s Dark Sky Alqueva reserve. October, November, and ...

The race is on to harness the near-infinite power of nuclear fusion—by building a star on Earth. And scientists are closer than you might think. Nuclear fusion in the sun occurs when hydrogen is ...

Putting people into sleep mode is a sci-fi concept that's a lot closer to becoming real than you might think. Erin Belback is part of an ongoing human trial backed by NASA that aims to replicate the ...

Earth's valleys tell an ancient story of ice and power. Over millions of years, massive glaciers have carved, sculpted, and ...

From historic Everest summits to Jane Goodall’s chimpanzee research, National Geographic magazine and its famed covers have ...

Although Earth’s two hemispheres lie on opposite sides of the planet and differ in many ways, they share a peculiar ...