June 2016

Climate scientists: Australian uranium mining pollutes Antarctic

Antarctica polluted photo: Andrew Mandemaker/Wikimedia Commons Uranium mining in Australia is polluting the Antarct…

First Detailed Recordings of Earthquakes on Ultraslow Mid-ocean Ridges

A block model of the ultraslow spreading Gakkel Ridge in the Arctic showing two volcanoes with a large segment of mantle…

Does a Planet Need Plate Tectonics to Develop Life?

Does a planet need plate tectonics to develop life? Plate tectonics may be a phase in the evolution of planets that has …

Why have so many huge diamonds been found recently?

The Lesedi La Rona, a tennis ball-sized gem found in Botswana, The huge rough diamond that went on sale at auction on…

Lightning Ridge Black Opal

Lightning Ridge Black Opal it is like lightning bolts that flash and change as it moves. Lightning Ridge mine site in New S…

Geologists Make Their Own Lava to Prep for Explosive Experiments

The lava-making furnace, viewed from above. Credit: Douglas Levere How do you make your own lava? Dump 10 gallons…

Bird Wings From Age of Dinosaurs Found Trapped in Amber

Bird Wings From Age of Dinosaurs Found Trapped in Amber. A small wing shows a claw and pigment banding in some of the f…

Scientists Have Discovered a New State of Matter, Called 'Jahn-teller Metals'

A magnet levitating above a super-chilled superconductor.sach1tb on Flickr And it could be the key to understanding on…

Opal Discovered in Antarctic Meteorite

Meteorite found in Antarctica contains out of this world opal fragments Planetary scientists have discovered pieces of opa…

Rust Under Pressure Could Explain Deep Earth Anomalies

An artwork depicting the decomposition of FeOOH in lower mantle conditions. The cycle starts from ?-FeOOH (blue dot on t…

Did Asteroid Crash Cause Earth’s Rarest Structure?

A lab made quasicrystal. The rarest crystals on Earth: Scientists reveal only four quasicrystals have EVER been found …

Huge Diamond Discovered at Cullinan

The 121.26-carat white rock is a Type II diamond. (Image courtesy of Petra Diamonds) Petra Diamonds discovered a 121.2…

What did Earth's ancient magnetic field look like?

This is an illustration of ancient Earth's magnetic field compared to the modern magnetic field courtesy of Peter Dri…

Volcanoes get quiet before they erupt

volcanic bombs When dormant volcanoes are about to erupt, they show some predictive characteristics--seismic activity ben…