(Image Credits: Shutterstock) Pale blue stone, named 'Serendipity Sapphire' weighs 510kg or 2.5million carats A star sapphire clus...
Geologists Take Earth's Inner Temperature Using Erupted Sea Glass
A map of the World Ocean Floor. Credit: Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division If the Earth’s oceans were drained completely, the...
Continuous Activity of Small Earthquakes Makes Mountains Grow
In the time between mega-earthquakes, smaller earthquakes continuously occur between oceanic and continental plates (background earthquakes)...
Rock Crystals From the Deep Give Microscopic Clues to Earthquake Ground Movements
Chunks of exotic green rocks from the mantle erupted from the San Carlos Volcanic Field, Arizona. Credit: James St John Microscopic imperf...
Watermelon Tourmaline: What Is Watermelon Tourmaline?
Watermelon Tourmaline: What Is Watermelon Tourmaline. A slice of watermelon tourmaline Watermelon tourmaline is a variety of concentrical...
Ancient 15,000-Year-Old Viruses Identified in Melting Tibetan Glaciers
Bacteriophages on a bacterium. (Graham Beards/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0) Scientists who study glacier ice have found viruses nearly 1...
Rare Diamonds Show Life-Giving Elements Present on Earth Soon After It Formed
One of the 2.7 billion year-old diamonds used in this work. Credit: Michael Broadley Earth's atmosphere was primed for an 'explosi...
“Invisible” Gold – Fool’s Gold Actually Contains Real Gold
“Invisible” Gold – Fool’s Gold Actually Contains Real Gold. Pyrite with Quartz - Huanzala Mine, Huallanca District, Dos de Mayo Province, Pe...
World’s First Nuclear Bomb Test Created Rare, Otherworldly Crystal
World’s First Nuclear Bomb Test Created Rare, Otherworldly Crystal. This sample of red trinitite. Image credit: @TrinititeMan On Twitter. ...
'Icelandia': Is Iceland the Tip of a Vast, Sunken Continent?
Academics believe they have identified a remarkable geological secret: A sunken continent hidden under Iceland and the surrounding ocean,w...
Researchers Discover Why Gold Is Concentrated Alongside Arsenic
Why are gold deposits found at all? Gold is famously unreactive, and there seems to be little reason why gold should be concentrated, rath...
This Tiny, 120-Million-Year-Old Fossil Has a T. Rex-Like Skull on a Bird Body
The new bird fossil. (Min Wang) A tiny, 120 million-year-old fossil, discovered in northeast China, is neither bird nor dinosaur but is pe...