Cirrus@Austlit

'The morning came, not gently like the sunrise should and has done in this place for more years than I know how to speak. The earth shook, and the racket from the birds as they rose into the air simply added to our abrupt awakening. ' (Introduction)

'Imagine. 

'You are standing in the Juventae Chasma, a box canyon cut deep into the red plains of Mars whose walls loom six kilometres above you, three times the height of the Grand Canyon. The sky is magnificently wide, a hazy stretch of violet and lavender. To the east is an ocean of sand whose divots and waves have formed the pattern of fish scales. Closer is a towering flat-topped mound of rock. Sunlight soaks it in gold. Other mounds protrude in the distance like tombstone teeth. But here, where you are standing, the dirt is hardpan, with soft blossoms of dust that unfurl before taking ages to settle. It isn’t like you thought it would be, not like the movies: even during the worst storm conditions, the wind here won’t knock you over. There’s barely any atmosphere. A squall that kicks up could take weeks to settle and while it could fry the electronics of the suit you’re wearing, you yourself would barely feel it. ' (Introduction)

'May

'Using a pickaxe and shovel, I loosen and pull weeds from around the base of the concrete water tank. The earth is a brownish yellow clay, clumpy, difficult. We’ve weeded old flower beds and resurrected pathways at our new dwelling, an old 1930s farmhouse in the Strzelecki Ranges, but this patch seems untended, growing paddock grass and weeds. The wheelbarrow grows weighty with clods of earth sticky, wet and heavy clinging to the roots of tussock grasses, thistles and kikuyu.'  (Introduction)  

'The road down the centre of Yorke Peninsula stretches south in a long unwavering line towards a distant vanishing point. Sweeping plains of golden wheat to the east and west overlay bones of white limestone, interspersed here and there with silver salt pans that shimmer, mirage-like, in summer heat. On either side, the sea and sky encircle a blue horizon. The only trees in this landscape cluster along the road verges, thick and scrubby, rarely more than 20 feet tall. I love this place, with its open vistas—it is the landscape of my childhood—but it is hardly the place I’d expect to find a koala.'  (Introduction)

'How often do you think about what’s in the ground beneath your feet? The cavities and caverns, the small bodies that live in subdued light? In our tenth edition, our writers and artists explore the science of the underground, drawing our attention to that which is often out of sight.'  (Introduction)

'What are “fairy circles”? They are polka dots of bare earth, regularly scattered across arid grasslands. Scientists first described fairy circles in Namibia in the 1970s and sparked a global debate in the scientific community about the causes of the phenomenon.'  (Introduction)