Geology

A 1979 seismic event was a different kind of earthquake, and it is has intrigued scientists ever since. A new look at old data has provided some additional answers. On Feb. 24th, 1979, seismographs…

We may use terms like "grounded" and terra firma to mean stability and consistency but geology laughs at that notion. The next time you go on vacation, a new tool can show you how many places your…

For decades, scientists have assumed that the Holocene—the relatively quiet geological epoch spanning the last ~11,700 years—was marked by only a handful of small meteorite impacts, most of them…

Some sixty million years ago a fountain of hot rock that rises from Earth’s core-mantle boundary unleashed volcanic activity across a vast area of the North Atlantic, from Scotland to Greenland. We…

Yellowstone was the first national park designated in the United States and is a popular tourist destination, but there is a lot going on underneath that people never feel. A new analysis of 15 years…

Everyone knows a 'day' - one rotation of Earth - is around 24 hours long and lengthening at a rate of some 1.7 milliseconds every century. Yet 2 billion years ago it was 19.5 hours and at that rate…

Natural events like solar cycles, wildfires, and volcanoes have created dramatic shifts in climate throughout history. Sometimes they even have cultural impact, such as the 'year without a summer' in…

Water is over 70 percent of the surface of the earth but how that came to be, through what mix of random chance and extraterrestrial involvement, has been a debate. Earth is a relatively small planet…

With the population at 8 billion and on its way to 10, there is renewed concern about resources, but water? Yes, though the percentage of the world's water that is potable can be counted on one hand…

Mars doesn’t have tectonic plates like Earth, but it does have volcanically active regions that can cause rumbles, and one way to develop a better understanding of Mars’ mantle and core is to…