Geology News

Mar 21, 2014 by Sergio Prostak

The stony meteorite D’Orbigny is the source of a newly discovered mineral, kuratite. Its name honors Dr Gero Kurat (1938-2009), a world-renowned meteorite researcher and long-term head of the Mineralogical-Petrographical Department at the Natural History Museum in Vienna, Austria. This image shows a fragment of the D’Orbigny meteorite. Image credit: Jon Taylor / CC BY-SA 2.0. The meteorite D’Orbigny, a 16.55-kg stone mostly covered with...

Mar 14, 2014 by News Staff

First terrestrial discovery of an extremely rare mineral called ringwoodite confirms theory about huge water ‘reservoirs’ 410 to 660 km beneath...

Feb 24, 2014 by News Staff

A small fragment of a mineral called zircon extracted from a remote rock outcrop in Australia confirms that the Earth’s crust first formed at least 4.4...

Jan 30, 2014 by Natali Anderson

An anomalous magma chamber has been observed at 8–11 km depth beneath the upper east rift zone of one of the world’s most active volcanoes –...

Dec 25, 2013 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has uncovered a giant reservoir of water beneath the ice sheet in Southeast Greenland. This map shows locations of...

Dec 23, 2013 by News Staff

For the first time, researchers have found kimberlite – a type of volcanic rock that often bears diamonds – in Antarctica. This map shows the...

Dec 11, 2013 by News Staff

Geologists from Brigham Young University, Berkeley Geochronology Center and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have found evidence of twenty ancient...

Dec 6, 2013 by News Staff

According to a group of researchers led by Dr Vincent Post from the Australia’s National Center for Groundwater Research and Training and Flinders University,...

Nov 15, 2013 by Natali Anderson

A new study published in Nature provides chemical, isotopic and physical evidence that groundwater found more than 3,200 feet deep under the Chesapeake...

Nov 12, 2013 by News Staff

According to geologists led by Dr Antonio Simonetti from the University of Notre Dame, a detailed analysis of calcite-rich minerals from the 120-million-year-old...

Nov 7, 2013 by News Staff

European scientists examined liquid basalt at record high pressures and temperatures to better understand how our planet evolved billions of years ago. Early...

Oct 23, 2013 by News Staff

Australian researchers reporting in the journal Nature Communications have detected particles of gold in the branches and leaves of eucalyptus trees growing...

Sep 26, 2013 by Natali Anderson

An analysis of three-billion-year-old soils from South Africa shows that oxygen appeared in the atmosphere more than 600 million years earlier than previously...

Sep 3, 2013 by Enrico de Lazaro

According to an international team of scientists reporting in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an asteroid or comet that landed in...

Aug 5, 2013 by News Staff

The International Mineralogical Association has officially approved qingsongite as the name for a new mineral, cubic boron nitride. Qingsongite is a recently...

Jul 14, 2013 by News Staff

Researchers have found geologic evidence that casts doubt on the prevailing theory of what triggered the glaciation of Antarctica. This map shows the present-day...

Jun 5, 2013 by Natali Anderson

Prof Patrice Rey from the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney has described for the first time the dramatic geological events that created...

May 16, 2013 by News Staff

Researchers from Canada and the United Kingdom led by Prof Chris Ballentine from the University of Manchester have discovered ancient water pockets that...

Apr 26, 2013 by Natali Anderson

Researchers have found evidence that material contained in young oceanic lava flows originated at the Earth’s surface in the Archean era, more than 2...

Mar 21, 2013 by Natali Anderson

Australian scientists have discovered a clear link between seismic activity and the precipitation of gold and other trace elements in earthquake fault...