The New Age of Exploration

Ever since our species left Africa some 60,000 years ago, the urge to push beyond what’s known—to discover new lands and opportunities—has shaped human culture. And that impulse is still strong.
As we celebrate the National Geographic Society’s 125th anniversary, we’re kicking off a year of stories about the new age of exploration. In this issue we consider the origins of our restless spirit; we examine new realms of life at the microscopic scale; we reach deep into the universe, searching for worlds like our own; we urgently document nature’s diversity, even as it vanishes before our eyes. Exploration is alive.

View of earth from Apollo 11. Photo: NASA

A fast-moving party of more than a dozen adults and adolescents left footprints in volcanic ash in the Pleistocene, providing ancient evidence of modern humans on the move in East Africa. The tracks are preserved at Engare Sero in Tanzania beneath a still active volcano.

Robert Clark

Picture of Apollo 15 mission on the Moon

A quarter million miles from home, astronaut James Irwin salutes the flag and the achievement of the Apollo 15 mission of 1971, the fourth manned journey to the moon. David Scott, mission commander, radioed to Earth, “I realize there’s a fundamental truth to our nature—man must explore.”

NASA

Climbing is akin to love. It’s hard to explain; we endure pain for the joy that comes with discovering ourselves and the planet.”

—Cory Richards

Overcome by the shock of survival, Cory Richards photographed himself minutes after digging out from an avalanche on Gasherbrum II. In 2011 his party achieved the first winter ascent of the 26,362-foot peak in Pakistan.

Cory Richards

Cory Richards and his two fellow climbers endured hurricane-force winds and temperatures of minus 50°F as they struggled to reach the summit of Gasherbrum II. “When you do succeed—well, you never conquer a mountain,” Richards reflects. “You are always its guest. In this case, we were its guest when it was in a bad mood.”

Cory Richards

The places I explore often seem to belong to another planet. I feel small, totally in awe of the forces of creation.”

—Carsten Peter

A team of scientists pitches camp in a lethal environment of heat and toxic gases. Photographer Carsten Peter documents their efforts to fathom the fiery workings of Nyiragongo volcano in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Carsten Peter

Picture of divers encountering a southern right whale

Every time I go in the water I don’t know what I’ll find. And always I return amazed at the animals that let me into their world.”

—Brian Skerry

Curious creatures meet 70 feet deep off the remote Auckland Islands, 300 miles south of New Zealand. In these unfished waters, Brian Skerry photographs a diver encountering a southern right whale that may have never seen a human before.

Brian Skerry,
National Geographic Stock

Fifty years ago we didn’t have the technology to run these rivers. Fifty years from now many could be dammed. Now is the time to explore them and hope others follow.”

—Ben Stookesberry

Confronted by a 130-foot waterfall in his way, Ben Stookesberry rappels down a cliff with his kayak on the Rio Alseseca in Mexico, a river never explored in its entirety. He has made 124 first descents on wild rivers.

Lucas J. Gilman