This week the Environmental Protection Agency announced a ban on the use of chrysotile asbestos, the most common form of asbestos still used in the United States. Such a ban has been a long time coming, according to experts who contend that there are no safe levels of asbestos, a substance that still kills 40,000 people annually in the U.S. In all, over 50 countries have already banned the mineral, known to cause a laundry list of cancers including mesothelioma, a rare cancer of the membranes that line the lungs and abdomen. It’s also been shown to cause lung, larynx, ovarian, stomach, and colon cancer.

Modern humans dispersed from Africa multiple times, but the event that led to global expansion occurred less than 100,000 years ago. Some researchers hypothesize that dispersals were restricted to "green corridors" formed during humid intervals when food was abundant and human populations expanded in lockstep with their environments. But a new study in Nature, including ASU researchers Curtis Marean, Christopher Campisano, and Jayde Hirniak, suggests that humans also may have dispersed during arid intervals along "blue highways" created by seasonal rivers. Researchers also found evidence of cooking and stone tools that represent the oldest evidence of archery.

Modern humans dispersed from Africa on multiple occasions, but the event that led to global expansion occurred less than 100,000 years ago. Some researchers hypothesize that dispersals were limited to "green corridors" formed during wet intervals when food was plentiful and human populations expanded at the same rate as their environment.

The record-breaking rain soaking the Southwest U.S. in recent weeks still won't be enough to eliminate the megadrought status in the notoriously arid region completely, according to researchers.

Silver Peak, which began mining lithium in the 1960s, won’t remain the only U.S. lithium mine for long.

An investigation from the Howard Center at Arizona State University uncovered the coming electric battery revolution in America will require billions upon billions of gallons of water to mine lithium. Many of the new U.S. mines will be located in the drought-prone American West.

Called the Melanesian Border Plateau, a team of international researchers determined the more than 85,00-square-mile structure was created when dinosaurs ruled the Earth 145 to 66 million years ago and is still growing to this day. Researchers used seismic data, rock samples and computer models to identify four periods of volcanic eruptions deep beneath the surface that started 100 million years ago.

The Melanesian Border Plateau was formed in four separate stages, which is pretty damn unusual.

Scientists pieced together the history of a huge Pacific plateau and found a complicated story.

Mountains here. Mountains there. Mountains everywhere. New Las Vegas residents, especially if they’re from east of the Rockies, may not be used to seeing mountains in their front, side and rear windows. But what are the names of those prominent mountains and mountain ranges?

The Silver State also has “dozens of active faults,” an article about Nevada’s earthquake risks on UNLV’s website states.

Is Las Vegas going to run out of water? It might feel that way if you’ve been paying any attention to the growing bathtub ring around Lake Mead, the shrinking Colorado River and federal actions to try to keep the river’s main reservoirs in working order.