The island of Honshu was rocked by a 6.9 magnitude earthquake this morning. picked by chinook 4 weeks ago

An unusual series of slow-moving magnitude-7 ice-quakes have been occurring twice a day in Western Antarctica. Generally such a strong earthquake would level towns, but these aren't even noticeable due to their slowness. Discovering the cause for such quakes would result in a better understanding of glaciers and they way they'll react to climate change.

We at plime already know the cause. picked by 2manyusernames 4 weeks ago

MapOfStrange - strange things in google maps
The MapOfStrange website is a way of recording strange, wacky, weird and wonderful anomalies, sights and oddities from Google Maps and Google Earth. picked by bingo 1 month ago

For the first time ever, the thrashed and jumbled innards of the notorious San Andreas Fault are now available online for anyone to see. picked by AutumnLotus 1 month ago

Inspired by AutumnLotus' article here, I figured I'd link to a site that is dedicated to the idea that Earth has been completely covered in glaciers more than once in its history.
I find this site quite comprehensive but easy to read for you non-science folk :) picked by tundramonkey 1 month ago

An American tourist who survived China's deadly earthquake says he is not only lucky to be alive -- he had a "surreal" experience of sharing the moment with giant pandas. picked by topofall 2 months ago

A 900-foot (and growing!) sinkhole has opened up in a Texas town, swallowing oil equipment, an 18-wheeler and everything else in its way. picked by lynxears 2 months ago

More than 1,500 people have been evacuated from the region surrounding the Chaiten Volcano in Southern Chile.

This is the first time Chaiten has erupted in 9,000 years.

Words to go with pictures here. picked by pocksucket 2 months ago

The asteroid presumed to have wiped out the dinosaurs struck the Earth with such force that carbon deep in the Earth's crust liquefied, rocketed skyward, and formed tiny airborne beads that blanketed the planet, say scientists from the U.S., U.K., Italy, and New Zealand in this month's Geology. picked by AutumnLotus 2 months ago

Munir Humayun co-authored a paper, "Partitioning of Palladium at High Pressures and Temperatures During Core Formation," that was recently published in the journal Nature Geoscience. The paper provides a direct challenge to the theory which suggests that all of our water, as well as several so-called "iron-loving" elements, were added to the Earth late in its formation by impac... read full post picked by AutumnLotus 2 months ago

Carbonados, black carbon formations that resemble diamonds, have been shown to have a chemical spectrum that indicates they originated before the formation of the Earth; their high hydrogen content suggests they are from a star-like environment.
... a gift from the gods? picked by rambler 2 months ago

Gondwana was a ‘supercontinent’ that existed between 500 and 180 million years ago. Dr Eagles, working with Dr Matthais König from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, Germany, has devised a new computer model showing that the supercontinent cracked into two pieces, too heavy to hold itself together. picked by AutumnLotus 3 months ago

(Warning: serious lack of pics) picked by cb__ 3 months ago

Chicagoans saying "we are not in Cali, What the hell is going on. picked by nesbyniccolo 3 months ago

New geological evidence indicates the Grand Canyon may be so old that dinosaurs once lumbered along its rim, according to a study by researchers. The team used a technique known as radiometric dating to show the Grand Canyon may have formed more than 55 million years ago, pushing back its assumed origins by 40 million to 50 million years. picked by AutumnLotus 3 months ago

California faces an almost certain risk of being rocked by a strong earthquake by 2037, scientists said Monday in the first statewide temblor forecast. New calculations reveal there is a 99.7 percent chance a magnitude 6.7 quake or larger will strike in the next 30 years. picked by JDRucker 3 months ago

Visitors to Kilauea's summit have a rare chance to see a red, orange, and yellow glow emanate from a vent at Halemaumau Crater, traditionally considered to be the home of Pele, the Hawaiian volcano goddess. Kilauea has been erupting continuously on the Big Island since 1983 and frequently offers views of lava oozing to the surface and flowing into the sea. picked by AutumnLotus 3 months ago

Somethings shaking off the Juan de Fuca Plate (the kid in me likes saying "Juan de Fuca")and its unlike anything scientists have heard in 17 years. picked by browntrout 3 months ago

New research suggests that the geological staying power of continents comes partly from their losing battle with the Earth's oceans over magnesium. Because much of the lost mass is dominated by magnesium and calcium, continents ultimately gain because the lighter, silicon-rich rock that's left behind is buoyed up by denser rock beneath the Earth's crust. picked by AutumnLotus 3 months ago

Thought of TundraMonkey when I saw this... and Chinook too maybe? And Rambler?

And who knew we had a geology category? How very Ken Fosterr. picked by gnikgnok 3 months ago

Geologists at the University of Illinois have confirmed the discovery of Earth’s inner, innermost core, and have created a three-dimensional model that describes the seismic anisotropy and texturing of iron crystals within the inner core. picked by AutumnLotus 4 months ago

A tiny zircon crystal extracted from a three-billion-year-old rock in northern Ontario is being hailed by Canadian and U.S. scientists as a primordial "memory cell" containing a previously unknown record of the Earth's early history. picked by AutumnLotus 4 months ago

The path of the pre–Grand Canyon Colorado River and how it came to its present course off the Colorado Plateau and into the lowlands of the Basin and Range have been debated for decades. Solving the problem of how the river came to flow off the plateau is key to understanding the formation of Earth's most famous erosional landscape—the Grand Canyon region. picked by AutumnLotus 5 months ago

The first direct evidence of how and when tectonic plates move into the deepest reaches of the Earth is published in Nature today. Scientists hope their description of how plates collide with one sliding below the other into the rocky mantle could potentially improve their ability to assess earthquake risks. picked by AutumnLotus 5 months ago

THE PROGRESS OF MANKIND CAN BE MEASURED BY THE progress of mining and metallurgy. The successive historical epochs of stone, copper, bronze, iron, steel, and silicon are the steps our species has taken in the quest to control the world rather than simply survive it. Besides adding to humanity’s health and material well-being, each of these stages has created the need for an ever increasing w... read full post picked by 2manyusernames 5 months ago