An aerial view of dredges at an illegal gold mining area in the Amazon region of Peru. Ernesto Benavides / AFP via Getty Images Gold mining has ramped up across the Amazon rainforest in recent years, ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Scientists have known for some time that tree rings record the history of avalanches. Now a new method allows them to study the ...

Discovering evidence of deadly deluges of snow from the past could help protect people on mountains around the world, researchers say. By Katherine Kornei A rumble, a deluge of snow and then silence — ...

For hundreds of years, the Amazon has been exploited for its gold. Today, the precious metal is just as sought after, but the remaining tiny gold particles are much harder to find. Mining often ...

New research has found that some tropical trees in the Peruvian Amazon can be used to monitor mercury pollution from gold mining, offering an alternative to expensive air monitors. Previous research ...

A new study leveraging 20,000 tree-ring records and nearly 150 scientists' contributions from across the globe shows that, while droughts appear to have had a modest impact on tropical tree growth in ...

Weather patterns like heat waves or dry spells can sometimes stall over one region. A new University of Arizona study found clues about why. The researchers analyzed tree rings from centuries-old ...

Blue growth rings found in woody plant stems represent years when cells did not lignify properly because of summers too cold for growth When the going gets cold, even tough trees struggle with growing ...