December 2020

Extinct Woolly Rhinoceros Found Frozen in Siberian Permafrost

Extinct Woolly Rhinoceros Found Frozen in Siberian Permafrost. Sasha the baby woolly rhino found in 2014 in Yakutia lived 34…

Kernowite: New Green Mineral Discovered in 220-year-old Rock

Known from just a single location, a new species of mineral has been described from the UK. A sample of rock that was collec…

99-Million-Year-Old Fossil Flower Found Encased in Burmese Amber

A rare flower is finally getting its moment in the sun, almost 100 million years after it blossomed. Researchers at Oregon S…

Slow Start of Plate Tectonics Despite a Hot Early Earth

The extrusion of fresh ocean crust at midocean ridges began to slacken 15 million years ago, perhaps cooling the planet. GEO…

Kilauea Volcano Erupts on Hawaii's Big Island

An eruption started at Kīlauea summit on Dec. 20 Photo: USGS   In Hawaii, this cursed year is going out with even more horro…

World's Oldest Python Fossil Unearthed

Palaeontologists have named the world's oldest-known species of python after uncovering well-preserved 47-million-year-o…

Crystal Color Zoning

Crystal color zoning is a fascinating phenomenon that occurs when different colors appear in bands or patches within a singl…

Five-Eyed 520-Million-Year-Old Fossil Reveals Arthropod Origin

Fossil specimen of Kylinxia, holotype. Credit: ZENG Han The arthropods have been among the most successful animals on Earth …

Scientists Solve the Molecular Puzzle of 'Flammable Ice'

There's a weird type of 'ice' found in the ocean that burns when exposed to a flame - and scientists think the…

Hot Rock Rising Beneath Central Greenland Is Melting the Ice From Below

A schematic diagram showing the main tectonic features and mantle plumes beneath Greenland and the surrounding regions. Vp =…

Alaska Islands May Be Part of a Single, Massive Volcano

Location map of the Islands of Four Mountains in the Aleutian arc. This also shows the position and approximate areas of kno…