News
Geologists May Have Found One of the World’s Greatest Treasures. Some Say It’s Too Dangerous to Dig Up.
5+ hour, 24+ min ago (353+ words) A massive trove of copper, gold, and silver sits lies beneath the Andes'but extracting it could come with a dark price. However, an initial mineral resource estimate completed in 2025 suggests that the companies in charge of mining this area'the U.S.-based…...
Scientists Are Setting Off Earthquakes. On Purpose.
1+ mon, 3+ day ago (420+ words) At the Bedretto Underground Laboratory deep in the Swiss Alps, scientists are inducing tiny earthquakes along a natural fault zone in the hopes of understanding what can trigger'and prevent'a deadly earthquake. Here's what you'll learn when you read this study:…...
Scientists Discovered Glass Orbs from an Ancient Asteroid Impact. The Crater Is Nowhere to Be Found.
2+ week, 2+ hour ago (288+ words) The discovery of a new tektite-strewn field in northeastern Brazil points to a large meteorite impact'but geologists have yet to find the crater. The largest tektite strewn field, called the Australasian, covers roughly 10 percent of the Earth's surface, and others…...
A Zone Under Antarctica Has the Weakest Gravity on Earth—and It’s Evolving, Scientists Say
3+ week, 6+ day ago (337+ words) The "gravity hole" formed at least 70 million years ago after convection in Earth's mantle. The weak gravity could impact our oceans. Earth's gravity keeps us securely on terra firma'it's ubiquitous and inescapable. But it's also inconsistent. Even though you won't…...
A Mountain Secretly Collapsed in Greenland. And Then the Earth Rang Like a Bell for 9 Straight Days.
1+ mon, 1+ week ago (336+ words) Scientists traced the mysterious global vibration back to a single, 650-foot wave violently trapped inside a remote waterway. As fascinating as bizarre signals from other planets can be'teaching us about earthquakes on Mars or auroras in the skies of Jupiter'sometimes…...
The Magnetic North Pole Is Rapidly Moving Because of Some Blobs
7+ mon, 1+ week ago (33+ words) Eventually, the blob of molten material beneath Canada split in two and the stronger one slowly shifted toward the blob beneath Siberia. This spurred the magnetic north pole to slip closer and closer ......
This River Doesn’t Flow the Way It Should. Scientists May Have Finally Figured Out Why.
1+ mon, 2+ week ago (162+ words) The Green River in Utah's Uinta Mountains follows a perplexing path, and a team of scientists think "lithospheric drip" is the culprit. "We hope that this paper will help resolve a longstanding debate about one of North America's most significant…...
Earth’s Magnetic Field Was Supposed to Be Our Shield. Scientists Say It’s Also a Leak.
3+ mon, 1+ week ago (240+ words) Particles that escaped Earth's atmosphere accumulated on the lunar surface over billions of years. When samples of lunar dust touched down with returning astronauts during the Apollo era, it was still unknown that those containers held molecules that had journeyed…...
Scientists Drilled So Deep Into the Center of the Earth, They Knocked on the Mantle’s Door
1+ mon, 3+ week ago (249+ words) The record-breaking mission offers an unprecedented opportunity to study the geology of our planet's largest layer. And that's understandable, especially when you consider that the crust is roughly 9 to 12 miles thick on average. Luckily, that average contains outliers'areas of the…...
Scientists Are Pulling Back the Curtain on the Weird Formation of the Rocky Mountains
2+ mon, 3+ day ago (212+ words) The North American craton actually dips near the Rockies rather than forming a sharp vertical step as previously believed. And then, there are the Rocky Mountains. For one, the North American craton'which terminates in Alberta in the Canadian Rockies'actually dips…...