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Geology

A person stands in front of a fault in Utah. Better understanding how rocks behave under stress and along faults like this could help geologists more accurately identify places at risk of earthquakes.

Big Quakes Can Trigger Other Shakes Thousands of Miles Away

According to new research, when a big one strikes, more than aftershocks can follow

New Research

Earth’s Gravity Is Reshaping the Moon

Leaving cracks on the surface as it slowly contracts

Turkey’s ‘Fairy Chimneys’ Were Millions of Years in the Making

Nature built them, but humans made them their own

"The Nut," an ancient volcanic plug on Tasmania in Australia

New Research

Scientists Recently Realized That 1,240 Miles of Volcanoes Were Connected

Now the Cosgrove Volcano Track is the longest on Earth

Lightning strikes near the U.S. Capitol building

New Research

Lightning Strikes Can Change Rocks’ Atomic Structure

New research suggests that rock crystals melt under the intense force and heat of lightning

People walk past the damaged Durbar High School a few days after the major earthquake that struck Nepal in April.

Anthropocene

What Happened When a Disaster Preparedness Expert Was Caught in an Earthquake

In this Generation Anthropocene podcast, geologist Anne Sanquini gives her first-hand account of April’s disaster in Nepal

New Research

Why Don’t Balancing Boulders Fall During Earthquakes?

The interaction of nearby fault lines may lessen ground shaking around some balancing rocks

Debris still litters Durbar Square in Kathmandu, seen in June 2015.

New Research

Why the Nepal Earthquake Was Especially Bad for Cultural Sites

The major quake sparked a resonance in the basin that made taller buildings more likely to topple

Half of Devil's Kettle Falls plunges underground — then simply disappears

Cool Finds

The Mystery of Minnesota’s Disappearing River

Half a river is missing in the Judge C.R. Magney State Park

Pluto may be home to a hazy atmosphere, nitrogen glaciers and possibly even an underground ocean.

New Research

There’s Flowing Ice on Pluto

And maybe an underground ocean

Trending Today

How Did Nobody Notice Five Million Pounds of Rock Fall Off Half Dome?

The park is always changing, but this time nobody realized it

The Allosaurus was a true terror of the Jurassic world.

What Killed the Dinosaurs in Utah’s Giant Jurassic Death Pit?

Paleontologists are gathering evidence that may help crack the 148-million-year-old mystery, including signs of poisoned predators

Lake Jökulsárlón shimmers with the reflection of a magnificent iceberg. This lake, located at the edge of Vatnajökull, Iceland’s largest ice cap, formed slowly when part of the glacier began to recede in the 1920s. The glacier continues to calve (split), releasing more icebergs into the expanding lake.

A New Photo Exhibition Depicts Just How Dramatic Mother Earth Can Be

Iceland, the land of fire and ice, brings vivid focus to the raw power of a geophysically active Earth

The hydrophobic bacteria that coat the ceilings of some dark lava caves produce a gorgeous golden sparkle.

How Bacteria Make This Underground, Awe-Inspiring Cave Shine Gold

These underground tubes at Lava Beds National Monument include sparkling gold ceilings that even NASA wants to study

An active basalt lava flow in the wild (from a volcano, not from the lab)

Cool Finds

To Better Understand Lava, an Artist and Scientist Make Their Own

A lab at Syracuse University creates melts basaltic rock in a modified furnace

New Research

How Many Craters Are There On Earth?

Not as many as you might think

Colorized radar images from the Cassini spacecraft show some of the many lakes on Titan

New Research

Lakes on Saturn’s Moon are Really Sinkholes Filled With Liquid Methane and Ethane

Strange and changeable lakes might form just as certain water-filled lakes do on Earth

Dinosaurs likely weren't around to witness this lovely view from the rim of the Grand Canyon.

New Research

Dinosaurs (Probably) Never Saw the Grand Canyon

The canyon likely didn’t exist in time to be a hang out for giant lizards

A satellite photo of the 2011-12 eruption that created Sholan island in the Red Sea.

New Research

Watch a Volcanic Island Form in the Red Sea

Magma troughs and earthquake swarms gave rise to two new islands near Yemen

Mountains don't all look like this.

New Research

Most Mountains Don’t Come With Pointy Peaks

Some mountains actually get wider as you go up

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