Geology News

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

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.
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 the Gemological Institute of America, these diamonds formed up to four times deeper in the Earth’s mantle than most other diamonds. 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...

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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...

Nataliyamalikite (TlI) grains on the mineral mascagnite (NH4)2SO4. Image credit: Okrugin et al, doi: 10.2138/am-2017-6057.

New Mineral Discovered: Nataliyamalikite

Jul 6, 2017 by Natali Anderson

An international team of geologists led by Monash University Professor Joël Brugger has discovered a new thallium mineral — nataliyamalikite. Nataliyamalikite...

The Mount Bromo volcano on the island Java of Indonesia. Image credit: Jan-Pieter Nap / CC BY-SA 3.0.

End-Triassic Volcanism Triggered Dawn of Dinosaurs

Jun 21, 2017 by News Staff

According to new research led by the University of Oxford, episodic volcanic activity is likely to have played a key role in triggering the end-Triassic...

The Dead Sea, Israel. Image credit: David Shankbone / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Oldest Evidence of Humans’ Impact on Geological Processes Found in Israel

Jun 5, 2017 by News Staff

What is being reported as the earliest indication of humans’ impact on the Earth’s geology and ecosystems has been found in the Dead Sea, Israel —...

This artwork shows a rocky planet being bombarded by comets. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Comets Contributed to Earth’s Atmosphere, Says New Study

May 22, 2017 by News Staff

According to new research, some of Earth’s atmosphere was brought to the planet by comets billions of years ago. This artwork shows a rocky planet being...

Ordovician sea life. Image credit: Vince Smith / American Museum of Natural History / CC BY 2.0.

Ordovician Mass Extinction May Have Been Triggered by Volcanic Eruptions

May 18, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

Geologists from Tohoku University, Japan, Amherst College and Washington University in Saint Louis, the United States, say they may have found the cause...

An artistic conception of the early Earth. Image credit: Simone Marchi / NASA.

Geologists Find Remnants of Early Earth’s Crust in Canada

Mar 17, 2017 by News Staff

An analysis of rock samples collected from the Superior Province, the region in Canada just north of the Great Lakes, suggests the samples contain components...

Uranyl minerals have distinct bright colors even after the uranium-rich ore interacts with air and water to form crusts like leesite. Image credit: Travis Olds.

Geologists Uncover Three New Uranyl Minerals

Feb 8, 2017 by News Staff

A team of geologists has discovered three new minerals — leesite, leószilárdite and redcanyonite — growing on the walls of old uranium mines...

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