The International Chronostratigraphic Chart has officially been revised. That means our current point in Earth’s geological timeline has been updated so that we’re now living in the Meghalayan age, which began 4,200 years ago with a two-century drought that destroyed several civilizations.
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The next blow to Big Diamond might have just arrived. Using sound waves, geologists have discovered a gigantic stash of the so-called precious stones deep in the Earth's interior, possibly to the tune of a quadrillion tons.
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News from Antarctica usually paints a grim picture, but now, a new study reports some more uplifting findings: the Earth itself is rising at one of the fastest rates ever seen, and it may help stabilize the ice sheet.
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The Medusae Fossae Formation is a huge rocky structure on Mars that has had scientists puzzling over its origins for decades, but the new work suggests it’s the result of massive volcanic eruptions that would have changed the climate of the Red Planet.
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Models have long suggested that Earth's orbit shifts from circular to elliptical and back again over hundreds of thousands of years, which plays a part in natural climate swings. Now, scientists have found the first physical evidence for the cycle, and traced it back to before the dinosaurs.
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Scientists have proposed a whole range of theories for what might have caused the world to freeze over in the "Snowball Earth" period 700 million years ago, and a new study has now suggested the root of them all could have been the beginnings of plate tectonics.
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Scientists know of 16 types of ice. Most of these have only been created in the lab, but now, geoscientists have discovered a type known as Ice VII inside diamonds. This marks the first time the substance has been detected in nature, and it suggests that Earth’s mantle is home to pockets of water.
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Nuna was a supercontinent that geologists believe existed from approximately 2.5 to 1.5 billion years ago. Now, there's new evidence as to how its various pieces once fit together – Australian scientists have found rocks in northern Queensland, that match up with rocks from Canada.
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Some scientists believe that human activity has triggered the dawn of a new geological epoch – the Anthropocene. On the path to being formally recognized, a new study has proposed a start date for the new epoch, and outlined where geological evidence could be found to support it.
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Mars may not be as dry as it looks. NASA and the USGS have used MRO instruments to analyze the vertical structure and thickness of buried ice sheets, which preserve a detailed record of the Red Planet’s past and could provide future human explorers with an easily-accessible water supply.
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