Geology

Ordinarily, if you want to know how soil properties change at different depths, you have to extract soil core samples. Scientists have now determined that the same data can be obtained much more easily, using ground-penetrating radar.

There are worlds out there so weird they’d put Dr. Who writers to shame. The latest to join the ranks is K2-141b, a scorching planet where it rains rocks, winds whip at supersonic speeds and huge swaths of the surface are covered in lava oceans.

Researchers have discovered a new mineral in a meteorite from the Moon. Named donwilhemsite, the mineral appears to form under high pressures and may play a crucial role in the rock cycle deep within the Earth.

The face of the Earth has changed drastically over its life, with plates shifting and sinking. Now geologists claim to have found the remains of an ancient tectonic plate beneath Canada, which was pushed under the surface millions of years ago.

In what sounds like the opening of a sci-fi movie, scientists have revived microorganisms that have laid dormant for 100 million years. These microbes were found deep beneath the seafloor, where they’ve been slumbering since the age of dinosaurs.

Scientists working with shield volcanoes in the Galapagos Archipelago have found evidence to suggest that volcanoes which ordinarily produce slow moving rivers of fire have the potential to create far more explosive and dangerous eruptions.

Newly released maps of Zealandia, a massive sunken landmass, are revealing the topography of this underwater land in unprecedented detail. An interactive website has also been launched allowing users dynamic ways to explore the new data.

Researchers have now found evidence that some of the world’s most impressive gems, such as the Hope Diamond and the Cullinan – which adorns the Crown Jewels – originated much deeper in the Earth’s mantle than previously thought.

Ranking right up there in the Things People Worry About is the potential for a cataclysmic super-eruption of the Yellowstone hotspot. According to a new study, however, the volcanic region may currently be waning.

When did Earth's plate tectonics begin? A new study from Yale University claims to have found evidence that plate tectonics started about a billion years earlier than is currently thought, which places it very soon after the planet’s formation.

Drawing on data from satellites and Apollo-era missions, scientists at the US Geological Survey (USGS), NASA and the Lunar Planetary Institute have pieced together what they say is the first comprehensive geological map of the Moon.

Earth’s rotation is changing how many hours are in a day and days in a year. Now palaeontologists have managed to precisely measure how long days and years were back in the age of the dinosaurs – and it’s all thanks to a humble mollusk fossil.