Scientists have found a massive volume of water 1,000km inside of our planet, around a third way to Earth's core: "This water is much deeper than ever found before, at a third of the way to the edge of Earth's core."

In a find unlike anything seen before, a piece of opal from the island of java in indonesia holds some remarkable cargo: a stunningly preserved insect that may be at least four to seven million years old. Previously, plenty of ancient insects have been found in amber, a gemstone made of fossilized tree resin.

In the lowland tropics of northern Colombia, 60 miles from the Caribbean coast, Cerrejón is an empty, forbidding, seemingly endless horizon of dusty outback, stripped of vegetation and crisscrossed with dirt roads that lead to enormous pits 15 miles in circumference. It is one of the world's largest coal operations, covering an area larger than Washington, D.C.