Mount Pelée, on the island of Martinique in the Caribbean Sea, erupted at 7:50 a.m. on May 8, 1902, one hundred years ago today. A giant black plume darkened the sky, while a superheated cloud of hot ash, toxic gases, and magma fragments raced down the volcano's sides at hurricane-force speeds. Within minutes, the city of St. Pierre had been destroyed, its 30,000 inhabitants dead.
When Lewis and Clark explored North America, grizzly bears roamed from the Plains to the Pacific and from Mexico to Alaska. Today, their numbers south of Canada have dipped to approximately 1,000 animals. A plan to reintroduce grizzlies along the Montana-Idaho border would give the bears a boost, but not everyone agrees it's the right thing to do.
From a bed of volcanic ash deposited in northeastern China more than 124 million years ago, botanists have recovered impressively complete fossils of some of Earth's earliest flowering plants. The discovery of this new family of plants sheds light on the life and times of early members of an enormous category of flora, which includes flowers, trees, and many life-sustaining crops.
National Geographic Adventure magazine and National Geographic magazine online between them have won three 2002 National Magazine Awards, the most prestigious editorial honor in the magazine industry. The awards were presented Wednesday by the American Society of Magazine Editors.
High in the Andes of Peru, life is changing one thread at a time for the Quechuan women of Chinchero, a small village outside Cusco. Women weavers are learning skills to make themselves self-sufficient and changing the tapestry of family economics.
More than U.S. $220,000 has been given to the National Geographic Society's Afghan Girls Fund since it was created five weeks ago. Inspired by Sharbat Gula, the "Afghan Girl" who was found years after her photograph was taken in a refugee camp, thousands of readers donated to the fund. Many have asked for more information about Sharbat.
Ancient skeletal remains from a Moche temple complex in northern Peru show that the victims suffered shockingly brutal deaths. Were they executed as human sacrifices to the gods, or ritually murdered as the losers in fierce power struggles between competing city-states? A National Geographic EXPLORER TV program tracks forensic efforts to find the answer.
The greatest land deal in history. That's the consensus on the Louisiana Purchase, a transaction in which the United States paid France $15 million for around 828,000 square miles of land, and nearly doubled its size. Now, the privately owned original handwritten proclamation in which President Jefferson announced his acquisition to the American public has gone on public display for the first time.
Once an icon of Indian culture, snake charmers today are struggling for survival. They blame stringent wildlife protection laws and the advent of cable television, which has ushered in nature programs that take the magic out of the once-entrancing street performances.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan has honored primatologist and environmentalist Jane Goodall as a United Nations Messenger of Peace. As a National Geographic explorer-in-residence, Goodall is famous for her pioneering research with chimpanzees in Tanzania, which began with a grant from National Geographic in 1961.
African herders rely on cattle for food and other basic needs, and as beasts of burden. But how cattle domestication occurred in Africa has been obscured by long-ago migrations and trade. Now, by studying the DNA of cattle in 23 countries, scientists are filling in the picture.
Ninety years after the Titanic sank, artifacts are being carried away and adventure tourism is taking a growing number of divers to the site. Scientists, victims' families, and heritage buffs argue that the site should be treated as a memorial and put off limits to such activities.
The state champions of the 2002 National Geographic Bee were determined in contests across the United States last Friday. The 55 champions, representing every U.S. state and several territories, will gather in Washington, D.C. on May 21 and 22 to determine this year's national Bee champion—and who gets to win a college scholarship of $25,000.
