Who left the earliest footprints in rocks that we can admire today? From the giant tracks of enormous dinosaurs to the delicate prints of small lizards and birds, I think footprints are fascinating. Tracks preserved for tens of millions of years, as well as those left within hours, can tell interesting stories about people, animals, and their interactions.
The demand for lithium is increasing dramatically – and sources of this metal are being sought from the high elevations of the Andes Mountains to the lowlands of Australia. Lithium is widely distributed on our planet, but since concentrations of this metal are typically quite low, relatively few ores that are economical to mine have been found to date. There are currently three major sources.
Five hundred years ago the Inca Empire stretched across the Andes Mountains of South America, encompassing arid coastal deserts, snow-covered mountains, and humid rainforests.... Since the empire fell in the 16th century, there is something that no subsequent government ruling over this territory has successfully achieved.
When I hiked to Machu Picchu along trails built by the Incas in the Andes Mountains, I was traveling on what was once part of the largest monumental system ever built in the ancient world [...]
Gold and silver metals provided an essential symbolic link between the Incas and the cosmos. Gold was associated with the Sun in the Inca world, and sometimes known as the “sweat of the sun.” The [...]
