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The Sahara Desert is the world’s largest hot, non-polar desert.

Sahara Desert is At Least 4.6 Million Years Old, New Research Shows

Sep 25, 2019 by News Staff

The Sahara Desert is the largest warm desert in the world, but its age has been controversial, with estimates ranging from the Miocene epoch (23-5.3 million...

Broken and rounded dodecahedral diamond from the Koffiefontein kimberlite pipe that hosted goldschmidtite; the mineral is seen in green and radiation damage of the diamond can be seen in the brown regions. Image credit: Meyer et al, doi: 10.2138/am-2019-6937.

Goldschmidtite: New Mineral from Earth’s Mantle Found inside Diamond

Sep 24, 2019 by Natali Anderson

A team of geologists from the University of Alberta, Northwestern University and the University of Glasgow has found a previously unknown mineral in a...

Scanning electron microscopy image (colorized) showing edscottite in the polished Wedderburn section from the UCLA Meteorite Collection. Image credit: Ma & Rubin, doi: 10.2138/am-2019-7102.

Edscottite: Mineral ‘Never Seen in Nature’ Discovered inside Meteorite

Sep 7, 2019 by Sergio Prostak

A meteorite found in Australia — called the Wedderburn iron meteorite because of where it was found — contains edscottite, an iron-carbide...

Hong et al found meteoric groundwater in two subsea canyons near the Lofoten archipelago, Norway. Image credit: NORCRUST / CAGE.

Marine Geologists Find Freshwater in Norwegian Sea

Sep 2, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of marine geologists has found evidence for meteoric water flow at 2,625 feet (800 m) below sea level near the Lofoten archipelago...

Chindesaurus bryansmalli. Image credit: Petrified Forest National Park.

Elevated Levels of Oxygen Gave Rise to North American Dinosaurs, Scientists Say

Aug 22, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Texas Austin has used a new technique to analyze tiny amounts of gas...

The Kohnen Station in Antarctica. Image credit: Sepp Kipfstuhl.

Scientists Find Interstellar Iron in Antarctic Snow

Aug 20, 2019 by Natali Anderson

A team of researchers from Germany, Austria and Australia has found traces of the radioactive isotope iron-60 — the tell-tale signature of a supernova...

Ancient volcanoes. Image credit: Sharon Ang.

Jurassic Volcanic Province Discovered in Australia

Aug 13, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has discovered around 100 ancient volcanoes and associated lava flows buried deep within the Cooper-Eromanga Basins...

The Maryborough meteorite. Image credit: Rodney Start / Museums Victoria.

Maryborough Meteorite: Massive Stony Meteorite Found in Australia

Jul 31, 2019 by News Staff

A 17-kg chondrite meteorite that landed on Earth less than 1,000 years ago has been discovered by chance in the Australian state of Victoria. The Maryborough...

Scientists Find 1.2-Billion-Year-Old Impact Crater Off Coast of Scotland

Jun 10, 2019 by News Staff

A 3,300-foot- (1 km) wide asteroid struck our planet 1.2 billion years ago, according to new research published in the Journal of the Geological Society. An...

This image shows tri-color crystals of elbaite, a mineral species belonging to the tourmaline group, on quartz. Image credit: Reno Chris.

New Mineral Classification System Proposed

Jun 6, 2019 by News Staff

The modern mineral classification system, developed by the American geologist and mineralogist James Dwight Dana in the 1850s, categorizes more than 5,400...

Backscattered electron images of experimental charges. Locations of images (A) to (D) from sediment-peridotite reaction experiments are schematically shown in capsule on the left. (A, C, and D) - reaction experiments at 5 GPa/1000 degrees Celsius with superimposed energy-dispersive x-ray maps of chlorine [green in (C) and (D)]. The sediment half of two-layer experiments recrystallized to garnet and clinopyroxene (Cpx), whereas orthopyroxene (Opx), magnesite (Mgs), and Na-K chlorides formed at the leading edge of the reaction zone against the peridotite. (B) - peridotite layer in the reaction experiment at 3 GPa/900 degrees Celsius contained phlogopite (Phl) behind the magnesite plus orthopyroxene zone, and Na-K chlorides were absent. (E and F) - sediment melting experiment (no peridotite included) at 4 GPa/1000 degrees Celsius showing silicate melt (E) in equilibrium with garnet (Gt), coesite (Coe), and Mg calcite (Mg-Cc) shown in (F). Scale bars - 100 μm (A and B) and 20 μm (C to F). Image credit: Förster et al, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aau2620.

Study: Salts Trapped inside Fibrous Diamonds Came from Ancient Seabeds

May 31, 2019 by News Staff

So-called fibrous diamonds, which are cloudy and less appealing to jewelers — and less often, gem-quality diamonds — trap and preserve fluids...

Dr. Blättler with a vial of 20,000-year-old seawater. Image credit: Jean Lachat.

20,000-Year-Old Seawater Found Trapped in Limestone from Maldives

May 28, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers from Princeton University and Universities of Miami and Chicago has found drops of ancient seawater in the sediment cores from the...

Meteorite with thin, dark, fusion crust in the Atacama Desert, Chile. Image credit: Jérôme Gattacceca, CEREGE.

Researchers Find ‘Oldest Collection of Non-Fossil Meteorites’ in Chile’s Atacama Desert

May 24, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has found a wealth of well-preserved stony meteorites in the Atacama Desert that allowed them to reconstruct the rate...

This image shows Tutankhamun's pectoral with a scarab carved from the Libyan Desert Glass. Image credit: Jon Bodsworth.

Study Sheds New Light on Origin of Libyan Desert Glass

May 21, 2019 by News Staff

Libyan desert glass is a natural glass found in western Egypt that formed 29 million years ago, however its origin is disputed: the two main formation...

After studying thousands of rocks samples dating at least 2.5 billion years old, Kamber & Tomlinson determined the Earth’s upper mantle was much cooler than previously thought. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Geologists Offer New Theory about Earth’s Thermal Evolution

Mar 26, 2019 by News Staff

A new theory on the thermal evolution of Earth explains why the planet’s upper mantle was cool enough to produce diamonds in the Archean Eon between...

Wang et al compared new protosolar elemental abundances with recent estimates of bulk Earth composition. Image credit: Orlando PIRO4D.

Earth is Devolatilized Version of Sun, Planetary Researchers Say

Mar 22, 2019 by News Staff

A team of planetary scientists at the Australian National University found that our planet is made of the same elements as the Sun but has less of the...

An artist’s impression of an asteroid hitting the Earth. Image credit: State Farm / CC BY 2.0.

Evidence from Chile Supports Younger Dryas Extraterrestrial Impact Hypothesis

Mar 20, 2019 by News Staff

The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis, also known as Clovis comet hypothesis, posits that the hemisphere-wide debris field of a large, disintegrating asteroid...

Close-up view of an iceberg near Mawson Station, November 20, 1988, much of it covered by snow. At the far left is bubbly blue-white glacier ice; the center of the picture shows the clear, dark green, bubble-free marine ice. The boundary between glacier ice and marine ice is nearly vertical. Image credit: Warren et al, doi: 10.1029/2018JC014479.

Study: Color of Green Icebergs is Caused by Iron-Oxide Minerals

Mar 5, 2019 by News Staff

Pure ice is blue because ice absorbs more red light than blue light. Most icebergs appear white or blue when floating in seawater, but since the early...

Namibia’s drumlins were formed by fast-moving ice floes instead of slow melting ice. Image credit: West Virginia University.

Geologists Find Evidence of Paleozoic Ice Age in Southern Africa

Feb 6, 2019 by News Staff

While exploring Namibia, the desert country in southern Africa, a team of geologists from West Virginia University stumbled upon a peculiar land formation...