geology

Cave tours can show limestone – an important regional export – in a different light.

If we understood how Earth's climate has changed over its long geological history, we could better understand modern climate change. In 2020, geoscientists took a major step towards that goal when they published the most complete reconstruction of the last 66 million years of Earth's climate history.

Thiophenes are compounds of carbon, hydrogen, and sulfur. Their molecules contain a ring of four carbon atoms and one sulfur atom. They are found in coal, crude oil, in fossils of microscopic life, and bacterial mats.

Many astronomers think that exoplanets circling distant stars might be waterworlds, but maybe we don't need to look that far away. In 2020 two American geologists published evidence that Earth's surface may have been entirely covered with water up until at least 3.2 billion years ago.

The surface of Venus is dotted with ring-like structures named coronae, produced by volcanic activity. They appear to be much like the Hawaiian islands on Earth, which are products of volcanic activity from a plume of hot material welling up from Earth’s mantle.

Do you live near a dormant volcano? You might have a weird wonderland right beneath your feet.

In Hawaii, there's a lava cave named Kazumura that's over 40 miles long, the largest in the world. When a volcano erupts, it sends lava rivers rushing downhill. As these rivers flow, their sides and surfaces crust over, forming a tunnel.

Scientists have discovered evidence of another ancient asteroid impact, but not the one that killed the dinosaurs. This asteroid is much, much older than that.

Scientists have found zircon crystals in Australia that are over 4 billion years old. Since the Earth is just over 4 and a half billion years old, those zircon crystals are the closest thing we have to a time capsule from Earth in its early years.

In shallow water off the Greek island Zakynthos there is what could be the ruins of an old Greek or Roman city. When it was discovered, people thought it was a forgotten city that had been destroyed by tidal waves that hit the island long ago.