The latest research suggests humans first arrived in the Americas as early as 16,000 years ago, but using which path - along the Pacific coast, through an inland ice-free corridor, or from the East along the Atlantic coast - remains controversial. Archaeologists and geologists are working to try to answer the question of how and when the first Americans arrived. In the January issue of EARTH Magazine, their work is showcased, reexamining the origins of our shared geoheritage in light of new evidence.

In 2013, researchers uncovered the graves of two infants laid to rest about 11,500 years ago outside of what is now Fairbanks, Alaska. Researchers understood that these graves represented some of the earliest human migrants to North America, but were they more closely related to their Asian ancestors, or the modern-day residents of North and South America? Using mitochondrial DNA analysis of the infants, what could we learn about our own human history?

A new study from geoscience researchers has important implications for studies of Mesoamerica and North America prior to the arrival of European settlers. Using isotope geochemistry, scientists at Pennsylvania's Dickenson College and the University of Arizona are trying to identify if turquoise mineral specimens record the signature of their parent ore deposits.

For years historians and scientists have tried to understand the ancient marvel of the Roman aqueducts to better understand Rome itself. Now archaeologists are using a new method - the buildup of travertine within the Anio Novus aqueduct - to determine how much water flowed into Rome.

In a small lake along the Japanese coast, scientists have found evidence of turbulent waters centuries ago. These telltale signs of severe weather in the geologic record support the legend of the two kamikaze typhoons that protected Japan from Mongol invasion. EARTH Magazine follows University of Amherst geoscientist Kinuyo Kanamaru and his research team as the dig up history in search of signs of the storms.

Read more about how the Spanish conquistadors actually changed the shoreline of northern Peru by ending a several-thousand-year cycle of anthropogenic alteration in the October issue of EARTH magazine: http://bit.ly/XNt7cm.

The Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM) announces an unusual paper in their journal PALAIOS that combines ‘forensic’ paleontology and archeology to identify origins of the millstones commonly used in the 1800’s. While all millstones were used similarly, millstones quarried in France were more highly valued than similar stones quarried in Ohio, USA.

Results of geologic tests released on January 9, 2007, by British businessman Robert Bittlestone, Cambridge classicist James Diggle, and University of Edinburgh geologist John Underhill suggest further evidence to support the hypothesis that Homer's Ithaca can be found on western Kefalonia as reported in the January 2007 issue of Geotimes magazine, published by the American Geological Institute (AGI).