Observing the Earth’s surface
Atmosphere and hydrosphere get in contact with rocks and minerals on the Earth’s surface, where rocks spontaneously adapt to the conditions of our planet. The Earth’s surface is continuously evolving and modifying in time to create different landscapes. The elements that characterize a landscape are various and range from soil conformation (grasslands and mountains) to water bodies (lakes, rivers and waterfalls), animals (fauna) vegetation (flora), climate and man’s works (cities, roads, castles and many infrastructures). A natural landscape, without any human intervention, is often the result of two opposite forces, a battle that has been going on for thousands of years, between the geological processes that occur inside the Earth (the movement of earth plates, volcanic activity, the processes that lead to the creation of new mountains) and the processes that occur externally to the Earth’s surface (erosion and water transport of material, changes due to particular climate conditions and many others).
Special reports
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13 May 2018
Small steps, great footprints
Have you ever wondered how much space is taken up by an apple or a steak?...
20 July 2022
Earth Overshoot Day 2022
Every day the Earth offers us countless resources, such as food, timber, CO2 absorption by forests and oceans, fibre, space…
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18 February 2022
Medicine, climate or space exploration? The main scientific challenges in 2022
According to the international journal Nature, the year that has just begun will bring with it major scientific and technological…
21 January 2022
Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai
On 15 January, at about 5 pm (Italian time), the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano erupted, spewing a huge amount of…
2 May 2021
Citizen science, research conducted by ordinary citizens
When we think of scientists, we often imagine people wearing white coats, shut up in a laboratory working with test…
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9 February 2021
At the origin of rocks: the secrets of paleomagnetism
The magnetic minerals of the rocks contains a veritable repository of information about its birth, history and evolution...
28 August 2020
The Earth seen from above: signs of fires
This image was taken by the ASTER sensor installed on the NASA TERRA satellite platform. The image was taken on…
15 July 2020
Earth viewed from above
Remote satellite sensing: what it is and what it is used for In the scientific field, the images produced by…
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13 May 2018
Small steps, great footprints
Have you ever wondered how much space is taken up by an apple or a steak?...
-
20 July 2022
Earth Overshoot Day 2022
Every day the Earth offers us countless resources, such as food, timber, CO2 absorption by forests and oceans, fibre, space…
18 February 2022
Medicine, climate or space exploration? The main scientific challenges in 2022
According to the international journal Nature, the year that has just begun will bring with it major scientific and technological…
-
21 January 2022
Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai
On 15 January, at about 5 pm (Italian time), the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano erupted, spewing a huge amount of…
2 May 2021
Citizen science, research conducted by ordinary citizens
When we think of scientists, we often imagine people wearing white coats, shut up in a laboratory working with test…
-
13 May 2018
Small steps, great footprints
Have you ever wondered how much space is taken up by an apple or a steak?...
-
20 July 2022
Earth Overshoot Day 2022
Every day the Earth offers us countless resources, such as food, timber, CO2 absorption by forests and oceans, fibre, space…
From the Multimedia section
Facts
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Mountains on the Earth
The different landscapes that we analysed in the previous section are distributed...
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The most populated cities in the world
In the last 50 years the world population has passed from 2.5 billion to 6 billion...
Soil erosion
Just like water, air and other natural elements, the soil may be considered a resource; it is, however, a non-renewable…
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13 May 2011
Mountains on the Earth
The different landscapes that we analysed in the previous section are distributed...
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13 May 2011
The most spectacular waterfalls
The highest waterfalls in the world are located in Venezuela...
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Mountains on the Earth
The different landscapes that we analysed in the previous section are distributed...