Terra Magazine

Rethinking Yellowstone

A geological mystery lies beneath the majestic beauty of Yellowstone National Park. Once thought solved, the enigma continues to unfold through the lens of a young science known as magnetotellurics. As accepted theory goes, over the past 16 million years a rising plume of magma in the Earth’s mantle produced massive amounts of lava and [...]

File under
Healthy Planet
Date posted
April 3, 2013
Written by
Amanda Enbysk

A Place of Belonging

It was tragic enough that Susana Rivera-Mills’ girlhood was visited by war. It was frightening enough to flee her hometown of San Salvador on a dark night bundled in the backseat of the family Fiat with her little brother Fabio. And yet, as improbable as it seems, the hardest part was still ahead.

File under
Healthy People
Date posted
February 2, 2013
Written by
Lee Sherman

Corps of Discovery

Just as some babies are born with special gifts for music or math, Harvard’s Howard Gardner argues, others come into the world with an exceptional sensitivity to nature. The Oregon Master Naturalist program was designed to tap into this devotion to the land and build a statewide corps of expert volunteers.

File under
Healthy Planet
Date posted
February 1, 2013
Written by
Lee Sherman

Caring for Cows

Studies show that a stressed animal is more likely to be a sick, scrawny, infertile animal — hardly the formula for business success if you’re a rancher or dairyman.

File under
Healthy Economy
Date posted
January 30, 2013
Written by
Lee Sherman

Ice Core Diaries

We are slowly beginning to understand the anatomy of global climate and how it changes, its geographic fingerprint and its tempo. Ice cores paint a complex and sometimes surprising picture, one that generations of scientists will spend decades trying to fully understand.

File under
Healthy Planet
Date posted
January 23, 2013
Written by
Julia Rosen

Sex in Play

It takes media savvy and strong role models to promote healthy development in the face of what the American Psychological Association calls “the massive exposure to portrayals that sexualize women and girls and teach girls that women are sexual objects.”

File under
Healthy People
Date posted
January 23, 2013
Written by
Nick Houtman

Far and Away

When you play fetch with a killer whale, it makes an impression. When you play fetch with a killer whale and you’re only 7 years old, it can change your life. For Renee Albertson, the change was a long time in the making. But as she tried first one career and then another, she never [...]

File under
Healthy Planet
Date posted
October 12, 2012
Written by
Lee Sherman

Forms from the Sea

During a Pacific Ocean research cruise, Angel White peers into her microscope. The ship rides gentle swells and sways side to side. In her field of view, organisms the size of dust motes rise and fall through their own watery world. “It can be disorienting and enthralling at the same time. The microbes are dying [...]