The most beautiful types of quartz [w/ pics]

Despite the fact that it’s the 2nd most common mineral in the Earth’s continental crust, quartz is a true wonder of nature. Composed of the two most common elements in our planet’s crust (oxygen and silicone), quartz fascinated both scientists and common people since ancient times. At a molecular level, it forms extremely complicated (and [...]

Rift in African desert will become ocean

In 2005, a huge 35 mile rift broke the Ethiopian desert apart and immediately led to geological claims that a new ocean was appearing there because two parts of the African continent were being pulled apart. However, the claims were quickly dismissed as being too controversial. However, a new study published in the latest issue [...]

Israel, in danger of being hit by tsunamis

Dr. Beverly Goodman of the Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences at the University of Haifa was doing some research on the ancient port and shipwrecks of the place, when she stumbled upon information that led her to this conclusion. “There is a likely chance of tsunami waves reaching the shores of Israel. Tsunami events [...]

Danube delta holds answers to ‘Noah’s flood’ debate

It seems the science side and the creationism side are taking things to a whole new level, each bringing out more or relevant arguments or theories; the juiciest picking ground for a while now has been the Bible; what portion of it is true, what happened, how is that relevant, all those things. Today’s topic: [...]

Mineral Kingdom Co-evolved With Life

Evolution isn’t just for living organisms, as scientists the Carnegie Institution found. They found that more than 3000 of the 4000+ minerals that exist can be linked more or less directly to biological life. This finding could have a crucial importance for scientists that are searching for life on other planets. Robert Hazen and Dominic Papineau [...]

Opals on Mars hint at planet’s wet past

As a proud student in geophysics, I can tell you that opal is hydrated silicon dioxide mineral with many astounding properties, but it’s also water hydrated. Since  water hydrated minerals have been found on Mars we are led to the logic conclusion that when these minerals was formed, there was water on Mars. Opals have been [...]

Report shows California has 99% chances of big earthquake in 30 years

I’m not fond of alarmist theories or “bad things are happening, fast”, but it seems there’s a real scientific base for this theory. The likelihood of a major quake of magnitude 7.5 or greater in the next 30 years is 46%-and such a quake is most likely to occur in the southern half of the [...]