Laser Scans Reveal Maya "Megalopolis" Below Guatemalan Jungle

In a discovery that’s being hailed as a major breakthrough in Maya archaeology, researchers have identified the ruins of more than 60,000 houses, palaces, elevated highways, and other human-made features that were hidden for centuries under the jungles of Central America.

The vast, interconnected network of ancient cities in what is now northern Guatemala was home to millions more people than previously thought.

Scholars used a revolutionary technology known as LiDAR (short for “Light Detection and Ranging”), to digitally remove the tree canopy from aerial images of the now-unpopulated landscape, revealing the ruins of a sprawling pre-Columbian civilization that was far more complex and interconnected than most Maya specialists had supposed.

“The LiDAR images make it clear that this entire region was a settlement system whose scale and population density had been grossly underestimated,” said Thomas Garrison, an Ithaca College archaeologist and National Geographic Explorer who specializes in using digital technology for archaeological research.

Read the full story here.

The Yukon: Canada's Wild West

Shawn Ryan recalls the hungry years, before his first big strike.

The prospector and his family were living in a metal shack on the outskirts of Dawson, the Klondike boomtown that had declined to a ghostly remnant of its glory days. They had less than $300 and no running water or electricity. One night, as wind sneaked through gaps in the cladding, Ryan’s wife, Cathy Wood, worried aloud that their two children might even freeze to death.

Today the couple could buy—and heat—just about any house on Earth. Ryan’s discovery of what would eventually amount to billions of dollars’ worth of buried treasure has helped reinfect the Yukon with gold fever, and fortune seekers have stormed the Canadian territory in numbers not seen since the 1890s.

To read more about the reanimated gold rush in the Yukon, click here.

Canada's Wild West

Author’s Note: The opportunity to travel through the far corners of the Yukon, reporting for National Geographic, was one of my dreams come true. As it turned out, it would be one of the most rugged and most fun assignments I’ve ever experienced. Over three weeks I would explore high ridges with gold prospectors, paddle through impossibly beautiful Arctic valleys with conservationists, and hunt caribou with some of the last hunter-gatherers on the continent.

The Yukon, with its brawling, big-mountain physicality, is one of those places that tugs on adventurous imaginations. It’s also one of those places that tends to draw passionate people with passionate opinions. The debates that have overtaken Canada’s Far North are emblematic of the tension that runs through many of the world’s still-unspoiled places—between those who would keep it wild, and those whose success depends on digging it up.

I came back with mountains of material—enough notes and photographs to fortify four magazine stories (including this one) and enliven a dozen keynote talks. As for the debate over the future of North America’s last great wilderness, it is still far from settled.

Read more about Tom's trip to the Yukon, here.

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Author, photojournalist and National Geographic speaker Tom Clynes travels the world covering the adventurous sides of science, the environment and education. His work appears in publications such as National Geographic, The New York Times, Nature, Popular Science, and The Atlantic. As a keynote speaker, Tom inspires audiences and brings them along “on assignment” to fascinating locations around the globe. Whether your group or organization is in search of adventure speakers, environmental speakers or your own in-house “National Geographic speaker series,” Tom’s presentations will earn high praise. To contact Tom and find out more about his memorable and inspiring programs, email info[at]tomclynes.com. 

The Virus Hunter

Author’s note: I often include this story in my keynote presentations. In terms of intrigue, it’s got just about everything: an exotic location, scary diseases and a protagonist whose efforts may very well prevent the next smallpox or Ebola from gaining a foothold in human bloodstreams. On my journey with Nathan Wolfe and his team into the very jungle that produced the HIV virus, I could see how logging and bush-meat hunting is bringing humans deeper into once-isolated regions that have a history of spawning deadly pandemics. Meanwhile, society has stacked the decks in favor of opportunistic microbes, with our closely packed cities, our changing climate and our growing numbers of elderly. Like many of the world-changers I’ve met, Wolfe has the conviction and tenacity to follow through in the face of challenges that would turn back most others. This is one of the most logistically challenging environments on earth, but as Wolfe tells his team, “If nothing is going wrong, it means we’re not asking tough enough questions.” 

Click here to read the full story.

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Author, photojournalist and National Geographic photographer speaker Tom Clynes travels the world covering the adventurous sides of science, the environment and education. His work appears in publications such as National Geographic, The New York Times, Nature, Popular Science and The Atlantic. As a keynote speaker, Tom aims inspires audiences and brings them along “on assignment” to exotic locations around the globe. To contact Tom and find out more about his memorable and inspiring programs, email info[at]tomclynes.com.

How Can Six Million Acres at Denali Still Not Be Enough?

After a half-year of brainstorming about National Geographic’s yearlong celebration of America’s national parks, the magazine’s editors offered me the pick of the litter. 

The choice was easy. Denali National Park, the crown jewel of America’s park system, offered a range of possibilities broad enough to be a world unto itself. It also offered some formidable challenges. I quickly realized that the normal conventions of outdoor reporting wouldn’t cut it in this nearly roadless six-million-acre wilderness. 

 I would spend a total of five weeks walking, skiing, flying and dog-sledding through the park’s spectacular terrain, during the extremes of the Alaskan winter and summer. These explorations yielded enough stories and pictures and controversies to a fill a dozen notebooks and data cards. 

In the end, only a small fraction of this material would fit into NatGeo’s 28-page feature story, leaving plenty of adventures to share for the first time with audiences at my upcoming talks and presentations.

Click here to read the story. 

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Author, photographer, journalist and keynote speaker Tom Clynes travels the world covering the adventurous sides of science, the environment and education. His work appears in publications such as National Geographic, The New York Times, Nature, and Popular Science. As a keynote speaker, Tom helps organizations stimulate action and involvement, bringing audiences along “on assignment” to the ends of the Earth. These authentic and visually stunning presentations offer a high-intrigue, high-energy way to catalyze creativity and engagement. To find out more about his memorable and inspiring programs, contact Tom at info[at]tomclynes.com.