Geology, features and articles | Educational Science

Oct 20, 2023

Mystery blobs in Earth's mantle may be linked to ancient gold and platinum that arrived from space

Scientists may have finally figured out why Earth's precious metals appear close to the surface, despite being so dense they should have sunk to the core. Turns out, they got stuck in gooey, half-melted rock after giant space rocks — some, perhaps, as large as the moon — smashed into...

Oct 22, 2023

What's the deepest-occurring gemstone on Earth?

In Virgin Valley, Nevada, it's possible to spend an afternoon digging for rare black fire opals, while visitors to Coalinga, California, can scour the dirt for pieces of the state's official gemstone, benitoite. At Arkansas' Crater of Diamonds State Park, aspiring gemhounds pay just $10 to hunt for the world's...

Oct 30, 2023

Scientists finally discover 'lost continent' thought to have vanished without a trace

The mystery of what happened to a lost continent that seemingly vanished 155 million years ago may have finally been solved, after scientists unearthed evidence of the landmass and retraced its steps. It turns out the lost continent, known as Argoland, had a messy divorce from western Australia. It disintegrated...

Nov 1, 2023

A 'protoplanet' that created the moon may be hiding deep inside Earth

The remnants of a protoplanet that slammed into Earth and created the moon may still be lurking deep in our planet's mantle. New research suggests that this impactor, which hit a just-formed Earth 4.5 billion years ago, still exists in Earth's mantle as two mysterious blobs that have long puzzled...

Nov 22, 2023

Water leaking into Earth's core may have birthed a mysterious layer that churns out crystals

Scientists may have finally found the cause of a mysterious, crystal-forming layer that surrounds Earth's core — leaking water that trickles down from Earth's surface and reacts with our planet's metallic heart. In the 1990s, geologists discovered a thin layer surrounding Earth's outer core — a swirling ocean of liquid...

Nov 23, 2023

Seamount twice the size of world's tallest building discovered 'hidden under the waves'

Ocean explorers mapping the seabed off the coast of Guatemala have discovered a mountain twice as high as the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, hiding deep beneath the waves. The 5,250-foot-tall (1,600 meters) formation is a seamount — a large, underwater geological feature typically formed from an extinct volcano....

Dec 3, 2023

Strange yellow glass found in Libyan desert may have formed from lost meteor impact

The Great Sand Sea Desert stretches over an area of 72,000 square kilometers linking Egypt and Libya. If you find yourself in a particular part of the desert in south-east Libya and south-western parts of Egypt, you’ll spot pieces of yellow glass scattered across the sandy landscape. It was first...

Dec 7, 2023

6 million-year-old 'fossil groundwater pool' discovered deep beneath Sicilian mountains

A large pocket of fresh water that was sucked down into Earth's crust 6 million years ago is still buried deep below a mountain range in Sicily, new research has found. The fresh water likely became trapped underground during the Messinian salinity crisis, when the Mediterranean Sea dried up after...

Dec 24, 2023

When did Australia become a continent?

Australia is not only the smallest continent but also Earth's largest island. But the land Down Under wasn't always so isolated; it was once part of a bigger supercontinent. So when did Australia become its own continent? Australia's continental landmass measures about 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) from north to south and...

Dec 28, 2023

Earth's core wobbles every 8.5 years, new study suggests

Scientists in China recently made a discovery at the heart of our planet: Every 8.5 years, the Earth's inner core wobbles around its rotational axis. This shift is likely caused by a tiny misalignment between the inner core and the Earth's mantle—the layer below the Earth's crust, according to the...

Jan 12, 2024

Listen to diamonds erupting from deep within Earth in striking animation

When supercontinents break up they likely trigger dramatic volcanic eruptions that pull diamonds from the deep crust and mantle and deliver them rapidly to the surface. Now, you can hear the song of these kimberlite eruptions. A new video, based on a 2023 paper in the journal Nature, shows the...

Jan 13, 2024

Columbia, Rodinia and Pangaea: A history of Earth's supercontinents

The continents we live on today are moving, and over hundreds of millions of years they get pulled apart and smashed together again. Occasionally, this tectonic plate-fueled process brings most of the world's landmasses together to form a massive supercontinent. the lost history of supercontinents (Image credit: Rory McNicol for...

Jan 14, 2024

Fountains of diamonds that erupt from Earth's center are revealing the lost history of supercontinents

In the twilight of the Cretaceous, 86 million years ago, a volcanic fissure in what is now South Africa rumbled to life. Below the surface, magma from hundreds of miles down shot upward as fast as a car on the autobahn — if that car were barreling through solid rock...

Jan 16, 2024

Massive tectonic collision causing Himalayas to grow may also be splitting Tibet apart

Tibet may be tearing in two beneath the rising Himalayas, with pieces of the continental plate peeling off like the lid off a tin of fish, researchers have discovered. According to new research presented at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union and posted as a pre-peer-reviewed pre-print online,...

Jan 18, 2024

Mystery of Siberia's giant exploding craters may finally be solved

Eight giant, 160-foot-deep (50 meters) craters in the Siberian permafrost have baffled scientists since their discovery more than a decade ago — but a new theory may finally explain how they formed. The craters are unique to Russia's northern Yamal and Gydan peninsulas and are not known to exist elsewhere...