Geology, features and articles | Educational Science

Jan 20, 2024

Why does Norway have so many fjords?

Norway is known for its stunning fjords — long, sinuous coastal inlets with steep sides. It's no wonder that these geological features, which are filled with sparkling water and often lined with rugged cliffs, headline so many tourism ads. Although fjords are found along coastlines around the world, from Alaska...

Feb 1, 2024

'Roots' of Colombian mountains 'dripped' into the mantle millions of years ago — but the peaks still stand tall

A Colombian mountain range has lost its roots — a wedge of Earth's crust that once propped it up but has since dripped down into the mantle, a new study suggests. It's long been a mystery as to how the peaks have managed to stay upright, but now, researchers are...

Feb 14, 2024

Seattle's massive fault may result from oceanic crust 'unzipping itself' 55 million years ago

A hazardous fault line that runs south of downtown Seattle may have formed when the edge of the North American continent tore apart 55 million years ago, a new study suggests. Seattle sits atop the Cascadia Subduction Zone, where the Explorer, Juan de Fuca and Gorda tectonic plates slide beneath...

Mar 5, 2024

Pangaea: Facts about an ancient supercontinent

Pangaea was a massive supercontinent that formed between 320 million and 195 million years ago. At that time, Earth didn't have seven continents, but instead one giant one, which was surrounded by a single ocean called Panthalassa. The explanation for Pangaea's formation ushered in the modern theory of plate tectonics,...

Mar 7, 2024

Scientists just discovered a massive reservoir of helium beneath Minnesota

Researchers have hit on what could be the largest reserve of helium in North America at a drill site in Minnesota. Resource exploration company Pulsar Helium, Inc. has a drilling rig located just outside of Babbitt in an iron-ore mining district known as the Iron Range, which stretches 175 miles...

Mar 8, 2024

Mystery of enormous Saharan 'star dune' finally solved — and it wasn't what scientists were expecting

A towering, star-shaped dune in the Sahara desert formed in less than a thousand years, new research finds. The study, published March 4 in the journal Scientific Reports, is one of relatively few to look at these so-called star dunes, which are the tallest dunes on Earth. Named for their...

Mar 9, 2024

How much water is in Earth's crust?

Water covers nearly three-quarters of Earth's surface. But how much water lies hidden underground in the planet's crust? A 2021 study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters found that more of Earth's water is held underground in the soil or in pores in rock — known as groundwater — than...

Nov 27, 2021

4-legged 'snake' fossil is actually a different ancient animal, new study claims

A dinosaur-age fossil heralded as the first four-legged snake known to science might actually be an entirely different beastie, a new study claims. The tiny fossil, about the length of a pencil at 7.7 inches (19.5 centimeters) long, is likely a dolichosaur, a now-extinct marine lizard with an elongated body...

Nov 29, 2021

Exquisitely-preserved mammoth tusk found 10,000 feet underwater

Researchers have discovered a Columbian mammoth's (Mammuthus columbi) tusk 185 miles (300 kilometers) off the coast of California. Scientists estimate that the tusk, which was found at a depth of about 10,000 feet (3,070 meters), is well over 100,000 years old. Related: Photos: a 40,000-year-old mammoth autopsy You start to...

Dec 2, 2021

Fossils of 400-million-year-old 'Excalibur worm' discovered in Australia

According to the old English legend, Excalibur is a magical sword wielded by the legendary King Arthur — purveyor of round tables and protector of Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries. Today, the legend of that enchanted blade lives on… in the name of a prehistoric worm that you...

Dec 21, 2021

Scientists find fossil of largest arthropod to ever live, a car-size millipede

Researchers in the U.K. have found the fossilized exoskeleton of the largest arthropod to have ever lived. These giant millipede-like creatures were the length of a car and likely roamed Earth during the Carboniferous Period, between 359 million and 299 million years ago. The monstrous millipede ancestors, known as Arthropleura,...

Dec 22, 2021

Flecks of silver in poop of ancient Cambrian creature baffle scientists

Researchers were baffled when they found shiny specks of silver in fossilized worm poop, because there is no known explanation for how the wiggly creatures could have made it. The silver specks were found in coprolites, or fossilized feces, that were embedded in a lagerstätte — a deposit of exceptionally...

Dec 28, 2021

10 coolest non-dinosaur fossils unearthed in 2021

When it comes to fossil discoveries, dinosaurs rule supreme. The extinct reptilian group grabs the headlines every time a new species is named or a possible new behavior is discovered (and rightly so). But hidden among the Stegosaurus bones and Tyrannosaurus teeth, paleontologists also find a bunch of super cool...

Jan 5, 2022

'Truly remarkable' fossils are rare evidence of ancient shark-on-shark attacks

During the age of megalodon, sharks hunted all kinds of creatures, including other sharks, according to a new study based on four rare fossils. In four separate finds, researchers and amateur fossil hunters discovered the ancient vertebrae of now-extinct sharks; all four vertebrae are covered in shark bite marks, and...

Jan 7, 2022

Rare and fragile fossils found at a secret site in Australia's 'dead heart'

Buried in Australia's so-called dead heart, a trove of exceptional fossils, including those of trapdoor spiders, giant cicadas, tiny fish and a feather from an ancient bird, reveal a unique snapshot of a time when rainforests carpeted the now mostly-arid continent. Paleontologists discovered the fossil treasure-trove, known as a Lagerstätte...