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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...

Magnesite. Image credit: Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Researchers Find Rapid Way to Make Carbon Dioxide-Storing Mineral Magnesite

Aug 16, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers led by Trent University’s Professor Ian Power has developed an accelerated way to produce magnesite (MgCO3) at room temperature...

Photograph of a garnet crystal with distinct tubular structures. Image credit: Ivarsson et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0200351.

Tunnel-Like Networks in Garnet Crystals Might Be Due to Endolithic Microorganisms

Aug 9, 2018 by News Staff

According to new research led by the University of Southern Denmark, tubular structures found inside garnets (pyrope and almandine) from Thailand are most...

A blue, boron-bearing diamond with dark inclusions of a mineral called ferropericlase, which were examined as part of this study. This gem weighs 0.03 carats. Image credit: Evan Smith / Gemological Institute of America.

Blue Boron-Bearing Diamonds Form in Earth’s Lower Mantle, Study Says

Aug 8, 2018 by News Staff

Blue (type IIb) diamonds owe their color to boron, an element abundant in the Earth’s continental and oceanic crust. According to new research led by...

Earth-Moon system. Image credit: Comfreak.

Meghalayan: Collapse of Ancient Agricultural Civilizations Defines Holocene’s Youngest Stage

Jul 18, 2018 by News Staff

The Meghalayan, the youngest stage of the current Holocene epoch, began at the time when ancient agricultural societies experienced an abrupt and critical...

Diamond in kimberlite. Image credit: Parent Géry / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Study: Up To 2% of Earth’s Oldest Mantle Rocks are Made from Diamond

Jul 17, 2018 by News Staff

The ancient cores of Earth’s continents are called cratons. Shaped like inverted mountains, they can stretch as deep as 200 miles (320 km) through the...

An artist’s impression of a ‘Snowball Earth.’ Image credit: NASA.

‘Snowball Earth’ Resulted from Plate Tectonics, Geologists Say

May 8, 2018 by News Staff

A team of geologists at the University of Texas at Dallas and Austin has put forward an intriguing new hypothesis that links the dawn of plate tectonics...

(A) scheme of Frasnian-Famennian (F-F) global event and two-step Kellwasser crisis, and related volcanic events; (B) locations of F-F sites studied for mercury abundances, compared to inferred proximity to coeval large igneous provinces. Image credit: Racki et al.

Volcanic Eruptions Led to Mass Extinction 370 Million Years Ago

May 2, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of geologists from Poland and the UK has found evidence that the Late Devonian mass extinction, which occurred approximately 370...

2-Billion-Year-Old Sea Salt Captures Earth’s ‘Great Oxidation’

Mar 23, 2018 by News Staff

An international research team led by a Princeton University scientist has found that the rise in oxygen that occurred about 2.3 billion years ago (Paleoproterozoic...

Diamond from South Africa. Image credit: James St. John / CC BY 2.0.

Small Inclusions of Unique Ice in Diamonds Indicate Water Deep in Earth’s Mantle

Mar 12, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of scientists from the United States and Canada has discovered the first direct evidence that aqueous pockets may exist as far as...

Diamonds with garnet inclusions (like the one shown here) can form at depths down to 342 miles below the Earth’s surface. Image credit: Jeff W. Harris, University of Glasgow.

Geologists Find Highly Oxidized Iron in Earth’s Deep Mantle

Jan 24, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of geologists has found highly oxidized iron, similar to the rust we see on the Earth’s surface, in diamond’s garnet inclusions...

Mount Etna, with Catania in the foreground. Image credit: Ben Aveling / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Small Volcanic Crystals Could Help Predict Eruptions

Jan 23, 2018 by News Staff

Tiny crystals of clinopyroxenes that form deep in volcanoes may be the key for advance warnings before volcanic eruptions, according to a team of vulcanologists...

The Site 1 on the Isle of Skye is above the treeline in the mid-ground far side of Loch Slapin. Image credit: Simon Drake.

60-Million-Year-Old Meteorite Impact Zone Discovered on Scotland’s Isle of Skye

Dec 15, 2017 by News Staff

A team of geologists has found 60 million-year-old ejecta from a previously unknown meteorite impact on the Isle of Skye, northwest Scotland. This is the...

IODP-ICDP Expedition 364 drilled into the subsurface Chicxulub peak ring at borehole M0077A (red dot), which was about 30 km northwest of Progreso and the north shore of the Yucatán Peninsula. The blue circle represents the approximate diameter of the 180-200-km subsurface impact structure. The gravity signature of the structure and locations of other drilling sites are shown in the inset. The only two sites with continuous core are the ICDP Yaxcopoil-1 (Yax-1) and IODP-ICDP M0077A boreholes. Other boreholes are Yucatán-1 (Y1), Yucatán-2 (Y2), Yucatán-6 (Y6), Chicxulub-1 (C1), Sacapuc-1 (S1), and Ticul-1 (T1). Image credit: Kring et al, doi: 10.1130/GSATG352A.1.

Geologists Return from Expedition to Chicxulub Impact Crater

Oct 25, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

The Chicxulub crater is the only well-preserved peak-ring crater on Earth and linked to the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction, an event 65 million years...

Prehistoric rock paintings in Manda Guéli Cave in the Ennedi Mountains, Chad, Central Africa. Image credit: David Stanley / CC BY 2.0.

Humans Migrated Out of Africa to Escape Drying Climate, New Study Says

Oct 17, 2017 by News Staff

Ancient humans left Africa to escape a drying climate, about 60,000 years ago — a finding that contradicts previous suggestions that humens were...

A smoking volcano. Image credit: Bela Marie.

Catastrophic Volcanic Eruption Occurred in Pacific Northwest 16.5 Million Years Ago, Geologists Say

Oct 11, 2017 by News Staff

The Pacific Northwest, a geographic region in western North America, was home to one of the planet’s most powerful known volcanic eruptions, according...