Geology, features and articles | Educational Science

Oct 28, 2022

Is Mount Everest really the tallest mountain on Earth?

It's no secret that Mount Everest, the jewel in Nepal's Himalayan crown, is the world's premier mountain. It's one of those facts embedded in childhood, like knowing that Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the moon or that blue whales are the largest animals ever to have...

Nov 1, 2022

Air pressure makes Mount Everest 'shrink' by thousands of feet, new study finds

Mount Everest is the tallest mountain in the world — but sometimes, it feels like the second-tallest, according to a story reported in the American Geophysical Union's news blog Eos. That's because the mountain's air pressure fluctuates significantly throughout the year, a recent study found, causing the summit's perceived elevation...

Nov 3, 2022

Mt. Everest: Why Do People Keep Climbing It?

Each spring, amidst stories of successful firsts, come tales of overcrowding, fighting and tragedy on Mt. Everest, including last week’s avalanche that killed at least 13 Sherpas who were setting ropes on the mountain’s most popular climbing route. Nevertheless, hundreds of people from dozens of countries are at Base Camp...

Dec 26, 2022

How does coal form?

Humans have been burning coal for thousands of years; since the Industrial Revolution, coal has become a major source of both electricity and global warming. But where does coal come from? By studying how coal forms, scientists can learn both about the deep past and about what to expect when...

Jan 1, 2023

What is the rarest mineral on Earth?

Most human eyes have seen the mystical beauty of quartz, possibly without knowing it is the most common mineral on Earth, but which is the rarest? Minerals are scattered everywhere on our planet, from glittering flecks in gravel or sand to actual hidden gems. According to the U.S. Geological Society,...

Feb 8, 2023

Fault lines: Facts about cracks in the Earth

Faults are fractures in Earth's crust where rocks on either side of the crack have slid past each other. Sometimes the cracks are tiny, as thin as hair, with barely noticeable movement between the rock layers. But faults can also be hundreds of miles long, such as the San Andreas...

Apr 4, 2023

'Absolutely gobsmacking' gold nugget worth $160,000 unearthed by metal detectorist in Australia

An amateur gold digger made the discovery of a lifetime when he unearthed a giant gold nugget buried in a field in Victoria, Australia. The man, who asked to remain anonymous, was using a budget metal detector when he hit pay dirt while exploring an area of the state known...

Apr 8, 2023

What's the highest a mountain can grow on Earth?

Sixty million years ago, when the Eurasian plate slammed into the Indian plate, a mountain range was born. Because these plates were of similar density, neither could sink below the other. The rocks had nowhere to go but up. Now, the Himalayas host Earth's tallest mountains. Mount Everest is the...

Apr 14, 2023

Never-before-seen 'crystal-like matter' hidden in a chunk of fossilized lightning is probably a brand new mineral

A potentially brand new mineral may have been hiding inside a chunk of fossilized lightning from Florida, scientists have revealed. We have never seen this material occur naturally on Earth, Mathew Pasek, a geoscientist at the University of South Florida, said in a statement. Minerals similar to it can be...

Apr 24, 2023

Scientists find weird holes on the ocean floor spewing ancient fluids 'like a fire hose'

Holes spewing warm fluids from the boundary between tectonic plates have been discovered at the bottom of the ocean off the coast of Oregon. Researchers think this strange, never-before-seen phenomenon, dubbed Pythia's Oasis after an ancient Greek priestess, could provide insight into earthquake risk along the dangerous fault — although...

Apr 26, 2023

Scientists find strange underwater volcano that 'looks like a Bundt cake'

A strange underwater mountain towering above the seafloor like a Bundt cake has been discovered off the coast of California by an uncrewed sailing ship mapping the North Pacific, according to the mission team. The unnamed, 3,200 foot (975 meter) tall formation falls just short of the required size for...

Jun 8, 2023

Scientists extract a kilometer of rock from Earth's mantle in record-breaking mission

For the first time, scientists have drilled into an underwater mountain to collect a record-breaking chunk of Earth's mantle — a core of rock that's more than 3,280 feet (1 kilometer) long. The stunning feat was achieved by drilling into Atlantis Massif, an underwater mountain located on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge...

Jun 9, 2023

New mud-slinging thermal feature at Yellowstone is spewing scalding hot muck

A newly formed thermal feature has violently erupted into life in Yellowstone National Park, forcing park rangers to close off a section nearby after it showered the boardwalk with a blistering mixture of water, soil and sinter — mineral deposits that are precipitated from hot springs. And in a further...

Jun 17, 2023

Is Africa splitting into two continents?

A giant rift is slowly tearing Africa, the second-largest continent, apart. This depression — known as the East African Rift — is a network of valleys that stretches about 2,175 miles (3,500 kilometers) long, from the Red Sea to Mozambique, according to the Geological Society of London. So will Africa...

Jun 24, 2023

Why did the last ice age end?

Nearly 10,000 years ago, Earth came out of its most recent ice age. Vast, icy swaths of land around the poles thawed, melting the glaciers that had covered them for nearly 100,000 years. Why, after such a long period of cold, did the ice age finally come to an end?...