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Geology

Trending Today

Watch A Dangerous Yet Lovely Volcano Erupt in Chile

Calbuco volcano springs to life after more than 40 years of dormancy

Scientists use underwater vehicles like these to study eruptions beneath the surface.

Journey to the Center of Earth

This is What An Underwater Volcano Sounds Like

Decoding the noises of magma and bubbles will help scientists study explosions from afar

This dizzying crowd of Douglas fir trees gives off a refreshing scent.

How to Travel by Scent

We tend to privilege our sense of sight, but why not be led by your nose?

The as-yet-unnamed new volcanic island in Tonga, explored by GP Orbassano.

What’s It Like to Take the First Photos of a New Volcanic Island?

Meet the man who climbed to the top and took these stunning shots

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Ask Smithsonian: What’s the Deepest Hole Ever Dug?

The answer to the question, says a Smithsonian researcher, is more about why we dig, than how low you can go

These images show the planet on the last day of Martian spring in the northern hemisphere (just before summer solstice). The annual north polar carbon dioxide frost (dry ice) cap is rapidly sublimating, revealing the much smaller permanent water ice cap.

New Research

Examining Martian Meteorites, Scientists Think They’ve Found The Red Planet’s Missing Water

Mars may have an underground water reservoir

Guadalupe Peak and El Capitan: a landscape “lonely as a dream,” wrote Edward Abbey.

Evotourism ®

When Texas Was at the Bottom of the Sea

A hike to the “top of Texas,” the world’s most famous fossil reef, leads to a new sense of the sublime

About 25 million years ago, a massive landslide engulfed the area between Beaver and Cedar City, Utah.

New Research

City-Sized Landslides Happened in the Past And Can Happen Again

Utah has a new claim to fame: it was the site of the world’s largest known landslide

One of the 4,700-year-old impact craters at Henbury Meteorites Conservation Reserve in Australia.

To Find Meteorites, Listen to the Legends of Australian Aborigines

Oral traditions may have preserved records of impacts over thousands of years and could lead to fresh scientific discoveries

Fortunately the lava cooled before we got there.

New Research

The Man in the Moon Was Made By Radioactivity, Not Meteors

Differential cooling caused by radioactive material in the crust caused one of the Moon’s most distinctive features

Vice-grips Fossil (detail), 2014, wood, oil paint, polyurethane, pigment, marble dust, cast plastic.

Anthropocene

What Will We Leave in the Fossil Record?

Artist Erik Hagen considers the remnants of modern human life that may be found in rock strata millions of years from now

A Burning Man tribute to the last remnants of humanity, a buried Statue of Liberty, depicted in the 1967 science fiction film, Planet of the Apes.

Anthropocene

Six Weird Ways Humans Are Altering the Planet

From deep holes to flying sheep, some signs of human activity might really perplex geologists in the far future

Pack ice and fjord walls with sedimentary strata.

Age of Humans

Have Humans Really Created a New Geologic Age?

We are living in the Anthropocene. But no one can agree when it started or how human activity will be preserved

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Age of Humans

Travel Through Deep Time With This Interactive Earth

Explore key moments in Earth’s transformative history as continents drift and climate fluctuates over 4.6 billion years

Members of the Apollo 15 crew training at Cinder Lake.

Can’t Make It to the Moon? Head to Arizona Instead

In 1967, the United States Geological Survey turned an old volcano into a lunar training ground for astronauts

Cyclists Inspecting Ancient Petroglyphs, Utah, 1998: Texas-based photographer Terry Falke captures several of the exhibition's themes in this image of cyclists examining petroglyphs and bullet holes in a stratified rock face by the side of the road in Utah. "You’ve got the ultimate strata, which is man-made, so the idea is that we are impacting, we’re leaving our mark on the Earth over time as well," says Talasek.

Anthropocene

What Does “Deep Time” Mean to You?

An art exhibition at the National Academy of Sciences offers perspective on our geological past and future

Cool Finds

Researchers Solve the Mystery of Death Valley’s Sailing Rocks

A team recorded thin sheets of ice pushing rocks across a desert lake bed, answering a decades-old question

The Napa Valley may be beautiful, but its fertile soil is a double-edged sword.

Why Earthquakes Make Napa Wine Taste So Good

The soil that makes Napa Valley grapes so special also makes the region vulnerable to earthquakes

An image taken during field work in the Daan River gorge, Feb. 8, 2010. The large outcrop in the center of the photo disappeared in the space of an hour during a flood in 2012.

New Research

This Gorge Is Living Its Life on Fast-Forward

A quickly carved river gorge may disappear in just a few decades

Delicate Arch in Arches National Park near Moab, Utah.

New Research

How Does Nature Carve Sandstone Pillars and Arches?

Researchers say the right mix of erosion and stress creates Earth’s natural sandstone arches and columns

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