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This summer in Poland, two treasure hunters discovered what they believe was a WWII Nazi train filled with treasure, in a buried tunnel. Poland’s Deputy Culture Minister Piotr Zuchowski said authorities were led to the spot and that he was 99% convinced that the treasure had been located. But according to scientists Krakow’s AGH University of Science […]
Somewhere in the Arctic, in the interior of the Greenland ice sheets, there lies a glacier like no other. This glacier quakes once every minute, more frequently than ever observed. Geologists now believe that studying these ice quakes could help them better understand how ice melts and reacts to rising temperatures and better model ice flow. […]
Scientists finally crack down a puzzle that has eluded the community for years. It seems sea level rise does indeed slow down Earth's spin.
Despite it being studied for many decades, there are still many things we don’t understand about the Stonehenge. Scientists have now identified the original quarries where the bluestones were mined: 225 km away in Wales, and 500 years before the Stonehenge was built! This could indicate that perhaps a proto-version of the Neolithic monument could […]
I’m happy to say that one of the most absurd events in modern science has finally concluded, and with a normal result. The Italian seismologists tried with manslaughter for not carrying a good enough risk analysis have been cleared – most of them, at least. The L’Aquila earthquake struck in central Italy on 6 April […]
If you've been following the news lately (especially science news), the odds are you may have come across images of this California road, deformed to the point where some sections of it are basically vertical.
It basically looks like a weapon: the fossil of a worm-like animal from the Cambrian period has been presented by scientists, and it’s as armored as it gets. The Cambrian was definitely one of the strangest geological and biological stages in Earth’s history; it’s not only that it was 500 million years ago, but the […]
NASA released a stunningly colorful new image of the dwarf planet Pluto, the latest in a series of images that steadily trickle down from the New Horizons probe since it left the solar system this July. And it's not only eye candy either; the features this picture reveals has left the smart guys at the agency scratching their heads.
A team of researchers has analyzed a swarm of data and created the first map that tries to estimate how much water is located beneath the Earth.
Geological maps can be awesome here on Earth, but when we have geological maps of extraterrestrial bodies... that's when we get really excited.
It was a finding that sent ripples throughout the entire paleontology community. Met with heavy criticism, the authors are now vindicated.
Researchers have found new fauna in northern Brazil, in what used to be the continent of Gondwana.
Seismic tremors around Mount St. Helens hint at a new possible eruption in the area. Geological surveys have revealed the interior structure of the volcanic system, and geologists have been able to correlate seismic activity with the activation of the system
The fossils were discovered in the Parnaiba Basin of north-eastern Brazil, and are some 278 million years old, corresponding to the Permian period, when all the continents we know today were still fused together.
Havana lawyer, Dr Fidel Castro, in Washington DC, 1959. (Wikipedia) Besides sunshine and sugar cane, what has Cuba got? It looks like the USA is serious about letting Americans party along Havana’s beaches and carry home a cigar or two. For two generations, two of the continent’s closest neighbours have been estranged with nary a […]
50 years ago, on October 28, 1965, an unlikely British geophysicist made a map that set the record straight on how the world’s tectonic plates fit together.
A sinkhole popped up in St. Albans, England, and engineers fear this is not an isolated event.
Paleontologists have unearthed two spectacular cave lion cubs, preserved by the permafrost in the Sakha Republic, also known as Yakutia. The last glacial period, popularly known as the Ice Age, was the most recent glacial period within the Quaternary glaciation occurring from 100,000 to 12,000 years ago. At the end of this ice age, several species couldn’t […]
A 7.5 earthquake has struck near the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan, close to the border with Pakistan and Tajikistan.
How do you understand the natural history of rocks and water on another planet when all you have are pictures? You do the math. Scientists have discovered how to use images of pebble shapes to estimate to estimate how far water may have moved them in ancient Martian riverbeds. These estimates enhance geographic information about […]
Just as the Moon is causing waters on Earth to go up and down (tides), so too does the Earth affect the Moon. Recently, researchers have found that our planet's gravitational pull is having a deep effect on our satellite, opening new cracks and faults on its surface.
NASA's New Horizons shuttle wasn't only taking mind blowing photos of Pluto, it was also peeking at Pluto's moons, especially Charon - the largest one. The latest set of images analyzed by NASA researchers revealed quite a busy past, filled with violence and geologic activity.
Paleontologists believe they have found the oldest evidence of the bubonic plague, embedded in a flea trapped in amber for the past 20 million years. This could provide insight onto how this devastating disease appeared and evolved.
Enamel, the hard, mineralized substance that covers your teeth originated on tough fish scales and then migrated to the teeth, researchers found
Specialists from the University of Cambridge and the University of Colorado estimate that the effects of climate change are going to take a hefty toll on our economy -- $326 trillion in damage by the year 2200, roughly $201 million each hour, the Christian Science Monitor reports.
Trilobites were some of the most dominant creatures on the face of the planet, thriving from the mid Cambrian 521 million years ago to the start of the Mesozoic, 250 million years ago. Paleontologists have now found the earliest evidence for molting - a trilobite shedding its skin 365 million years ago.
About 260 million years ago, this pre-reptile might not have looked like much. With its knobby face and about as big as a cow, Bunostegos akokanensis was actually pretty remarkable. According to a new analysis, it was actually the first creature to walk upright on all four legs, maintaining a fully erect gate.
Scientists have discovered the longest chain of continental volcanoes in the world, stretching almost 2000 km (1200 miles) on Australia's coast. The volcanic track includes 15 volcanoes formed over 30 million years ago.
A massive 8.3 magnitude Earthquake struck the northern coast of Chile on Wednesday night, killing at least five people and causing buildings to sway in the capital city of Santiago. Following the earthquake, waves of up to 4.5 meters were reported in some areas of the coast. About one million people were evacuated.
NASA recently uploaded a strikingly beautiful photograph on their website showing a petrified sand dune on Mars. The image was actually pieced together from several shots taken using Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam) on August 27th. From end to end, the panorama spans a full 135 degrees of other-worldly awesomeness, with east to the left and southwest to the right.
An ocean of magma could explain why Jupiter's moon Io has volcanoes in the "wrong place". This would also mean that Io has an ocean of liquid water beneath its surface and might be potentially habitable.
An isolated bay in the heart of East Africa offers scientists a glimpse into early Earth's iron-rich marine environment, and lends weight to the theory that microbial activity created some of the largest iron ore deposits billions of years ago.
Scientists from the Smithsonian have a surprising fossil dating about 6 million years old. The fossil seems to have been an ancestor of modern dolphins and might explain why dolphins left rivers and set out for the ocean. Today, there are almost 40 species of dolphins, and all of them are intriguing animals. For starters, […]
We tend to think of flowering plants and ubiquitous, but in truth, they’ve “only” been around for about 125 million years – which geologically speaking… is still a lot, it’s just not forever. Geologists may have just found the oldest flower. Looking through some previously discovered fossils, scientists were thrilled to find a spectacular specimen: […]
Finding insects, plants or even dinosaur feathers trapped in amber s rare and exciting. But finding a fossil salamander in amber… that’s something else – it’s actually unique. But the salamander’s unfortunate fate sparked immediate interest from researchers: not only is it a unique finding, but it’s from a never-before seen species of salamander, and […]
Paleontologists have discovered a set of dinosaur footprints that seem to indicate social behavior in carnivorous dinosaurs. The footprints, found in northern Germany, belonged to two dinosaurs, one larger, and one smaller.
Hydro-energy is clean, cheap and reliable – in many ways, it’s every man’s dream: you get the reliability of fossil fuels with the eco-friendliness of wind and solar. But hydro also comes at a price, one that we are only recently discovering: it threatens biodiversity and encourages erosion. The removal of a dam on the Elwha […]
As a geologist, I'm not into gemstones and "pretty rocks" - but every once in a while, I see a rock so spectacular that it just blows my mind. Such is the case with "Virgin Rainbow", a glorious opal unveiled by the South Australian Museum in Adelaide.
Scientists analyzing data from the Large Binocular Telescope Observatory in Arizona spotted a huge lava lake on Io, one of Jupiter’s largest moons. We’ve known for a while that Io is quite an amazing (and hellish) place; it’s the most geologically active place in the solar system, with extreme geologic activity occurring as a result of tidal […]
Mars is now a cold and dry place, but it wasn't always like this - the Red Planet used to have a lot of water on its surface. Now, researchers have discovered one of the very last places where (potentially habitable) liquid water existed on Mars.
Before the Cambrian, more than 541 million years ago, intriguing creatures named rangeomorphs that grew up to 2 meters dwelt in marine environments. They were unable to move, had no apparent reproductive organs and there is no evidence of them having a gut or a mouth. But a new study has found that their reproductive techniques […]
Fossils of an elasmosaur, a rare type of plesiosaur were discovered in Alaska by Anchorage-based fossil collector Curvin Metzler. Researchers have confirmed this discovery and identified the species.
An "absolutely exquisite" fossil of a juvenile snake with limbs has been discovered by English paleontologists in Brazil. The fossil dates back from the early Cretaceous, 110 million years ago, and is the oldest evidence of a definitive snake.
Researchers have discovered a new dinosaur species covered with feathers. Its wings were very short and it likely wouldn't have been able to fly or glide, but the creature was on the cusp of evolving into a bird. It was also one of the ancestors of the velociraptors.
Scientists have stumbled on some incredibly old sperm in the wall of a fossilized cocoon in Antarctica. The remains of the long, thin cells represent the oldest animal sperm known to man - 50 million years old.
A chance discovery revealed an impressive cluster of extinct volcanoes 150 miles off the coast of Sydney, three miles below the water surface. The four volcanoes, which are now calderas, may reveal why Australia and New Zealand separated between 40 and 80 million years ago. Don’t you just hate it when you go searching for lobsters […]
Paleontologists have discovered what looks like the earliest member of the Corytophanidae (also known as casquehead or helmeted lizards) judging from fossils collected in Wyoming. The ancient species is also the earliest ancestor of the modern basilisk, or better known as the Jesus Lizard because of its ability to skim the surface of water over short distances.
Rosetta is a robotic space probe built and launched by the European Space Agency. Along with Philae, its lander module, the craft is performing a detailed study of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The probe usually orbits 67P at a distance of a few hundred kilometers. Footage received from Rosetta over the last year showed a number of dust […]
Saber-tooth cats, the bane of early humans (and pretty much every creature that co-existed with them), roamed the Earth for 42 million years before going extinct at the end of the ice age. Now, a new study has found that their trademark teeth may have evolved later in their evolutionary stage, but when they grew, they grew […]
Paleontologists working in China have discovered fossils of an impressively armored worm that lived during the Cambrian, 500 million years ago. Called Hairy Collins’ Monster, this is one of the first creatures to develop a spiky armor. Today, the 180 species of velvet worms are pretty similar – they have tiny eyes, antennae, multiple pairs of […]
