Geology

Secretary of the Smithsonian, G. Wayne Clough, traveled to Worland, Wyo. to observe Scott Wing and his team mine the fossil lode they found.

Day 1: A Geological Trip Back in Time

Smithsonian Secretary Clough flies to Wyoming to learn about a period of intense global warming that occurred 55 million years ago

Antietam remains the bloodiest day in American history—23,000 men died or were wounded on that battlefield.

Civil War Geology

What underlies the Civil War’s 25 bloodiest battles? Two geologists investigate why certain terrain proved so hazardous

William Chadwick Jr. and a team from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration were the fist to video tape an erupting underwater volcano

Underwater Discovery

Watch an erupting underwater volcano

Jeweler Harry Winston donated the famous Hope Diamond—the largest-known deep blue diamond in the world—to the Smithsonian Institution in 1958. It arrived in a plain brown package by registered mail, insured for one million dollars. Surrounded by 16 white pear-shaped and cushion-cut diamonds and hanging from a chain with 45 diamonds, the rare gem attracts 6 million visitors a year to the Natural History Museum.

Glow-in-the-Dark Jewels

How the Hope Diamond's mysterious phosphorescence led to "fingerprinting" blue diamonds

It is possible to see the world in a grain of sand—big chunks of the world, anyway, including the Himalayas and other mountain ranges (Elizabeth Catlos at Oklahoma State University with a piece of granite whose grains may reveal the history of Turkey’s Menderes Massif.)

Rock of Ages

Where did the world's highest mountains come from? Geologist Elizabeth Catlos takes a new view

San Francisco in 1906.

Future Shocks

Modern science, ancient catastrophes and the endless quest to predict earthquakes

Artist depiction of the MESSENGER spacecraft in orbit around Mercury

Being There

Robotic spacecraft allow geologists to explore other planets as if they were on-site

Cattle suffocated by carbon dioxide from Lake Nyos

Defusing Africa's Killer Lakes

In a remote region of Cameroon, an international team of scientists takes extraordinary steps to prevent the recurrence of a deadly natural disaster

A year after the eruption, the effects were felt in the northeastern United States, where vital corn crops withered from killing frosts.

Blast from the Past

The eruption of Mount Tambora killed thousands, plunged much of the world into a frightful chill and offers lessons for today

Enormous gypsum crystals in a Naica cavern

Crystal Moonbeams

A pair of Mexican miners stumble upon a room filled with what could be the world's largest crystals

This SeaWiFS view reveals the colourful interplay of currents on the sea's surface

Evidence for a Flood

Sediment layers suggest that 7,500 years ago Mediterranean water roared into the Black Sea

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When the Earth Froze

The rocks tell us that at least twice, the earth has frozen over from the poles to the equator

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Geology That's Alive

Volcanologist Richard Fiske loves fieldwork most of all--when he's on the job, the Earth moves

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Mapping the Margins

It's a violent world at the edges of our continental shelves, which could serve as a geology textbook

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If Rocks Were Worth Money, a Hilltop Farmer Could Get Rich Quick

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Geologists Worry About Dangers of Living 'Under the Volcano'

The experts believe Mount Rainier will give plenty of notice before it erupts again--the problem is that it can kill in other ways

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Phenomena, Comment and Notes

When a drop of rain carries a particle of dirt off the land and into the sea, there are repercussions from deep within Earth to the nearer reaches of space

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The Floods That Carved the West

In a geological catastrophe, a lake exploded through an Ice Age dam, and its waters swept across the Pacific Northwest; signs of its passage visible

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