Alfred Wegener was the first scientist to theorize the concept of continental drift to explain how land masses are situated today. Modernized technology proved his proposition to be true in the 1960s and many divisions of geologic study today begin with Wegener’s ideas.
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Japan ceases whaling following U.N. International Court of Justice ruling that whaling is not allowed through a previous loophole stating nations could hunt whale for research purposes.
The failure of the potato crop in Ireland, aided by harsh British land ownership policies, caused a period of mass starvation, disease, and emigration.
President of the Republic of the Maldives, Mohammed Nasheed and 13 government officials hold an underwater cabinet meeting in Girifushi on 17 October 2009, to call attention to the threat of global warming on the island nation.
The refining process of the Canadian tar sands causes dangerous groundwater problems and creates massive amounts of greenhouse gases, toxins, and pollutants that are causing increasing cancer rates and massive destruction to wetlands and forests.
Hurricane Katrina strikes the United States Gulf Coast, causing one of the deadliest and costliest natural disasters in American history.
In 2010 a sinkhole in Guatemala City collapsed due to negligent sewer pipe regulations, claiming the lives of 15 people and swallowed a small factory.
A massive wildfire, commonly referred to as the Big Blowup, ravished 3 million acres of woods and burned down everything in its path. In response to the devastation the US Forest Service changed their fire management strategies and policies.
The ancient Native American city of Cahokia supported an estimated 20,000 residents at its height and featured scores of earthen mounds. However, by 1400 it was abandoned.
Within the northern Pacific Ocean there is a wide distribution of floating debris, primarily comprised of non-biodegradable plastics.