Alarming Threat: New Research Reveals That U.S. Groundwater Is Getting Saltier
For over thirty years, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists have been tracking the quality of groundwater in wells throughout the nation. Their focus has been…
Geological Society of America News
Crash Course: Hypervelocity Impact Experiments Probe the Origin of Organics on Dwarf Planet Ceres
NASA’s Dawn mission discovered complex organics on Ceres. While their origin remains debated, new research suggests these molecules might have formed on Ceres itself. Future…
Desert Paradox: The Sahara’s Lost Civilization That Defied Nature’s Odds
With its low quantities of rain and soaring high temperatures, the Sahara Desert is often regarded as one of the most extreme and least habitable…
A Glimpse of Extinction: Scientists Uncover Extraordinary Fossils From the End of the Age of the Dinosaurs
The discovery of a spectacular fossil site in Argentina is helping shed new light on life at the end of the Cretaceous, the time period…
Extinct Offshore Volcano Could Store Up to 8.6 Gigatons of Carbon Dioxide
A new study suggests that an extinct offshore volcano in Portugal can potentially store 1.2-8.6 gigatons of carbon dioxide, representing 24-125 years of the country’s…
Scientists Identify the Origins of Sulfuric Acid Responsible for Creating Stunning and Distinctive Cave Systems
A recent study published in the journal Geology has employed isotopes of sulfur to identify the origins of the sulfuric acid responsible for creating the…
Earth’s Oldest Stromatolites and New Prospects for the Search for Life on Mars
Advanced 2D-3D insights into Earth’s oldest stromatolites. The oldest morphological traces of life on Earth are sometimes very controversial, both because non-biological processes may generate…
Monstrous “Mega-Earthquake” Triggered by Impact That Killed the Dinosaurs
A 6-mile (10-kilometer) asteroid hit Earth 66 million years ago, triggering the extinction of the dinosaurs. According to new evidence, the Chicxulub impact also triggered…
830-Million-Year-Old Microorganisms Discovered in Ancient Crystals – Implications for Search for Extraterrestrial Life
Ancient microorganisms found in halite may have implications for search for both terrestrial and extraterrestrial life. Primary fluid inclusions in bedded halite from the 830-million-year-old…
Secondary Cratering Discovered on Earth: The Wyoming Impact Crater Field
Several dozen small impact craters, 10–70-m in size, have been discovered in southeastern Wyoming. A team of U.S. and German geoscientists found these ancient craters…
Sedimentary Repositories Suggest Environmental Variability Driven by Changes in Earth’s Orbit
Rift Valley lakes within eastern Africa range from freshwater to highly alkaline systems and are homes to diverse ecosystems. These Rift Valley lakes are also…
Selenium May Support Microbial Life Deep in Earth’s Continental Crust
International drilling efforts over the last decades into the seafloor have provided increasing evidence for the existence of an extensive deep biosphere below the seafloor….
The “Great Dying” – Rapid Warming Contributed to Abrupt Collapse of Forest-Mire Ecosystems
Rapid Warming and Monsoonal Intensification Contributed to the Abrupt Collapse of Forest-Mire (Glossopteris) Ecosystems in the High Southern Latitudes The Paleozoic era culminated 251.9 million…
Plastic Pollution in the Deep Sea: A Geological Perspective on a Global Problem
A new focus article in the May issue of Geology summarizes research on plastic waste in marine and sedimentary environments. Authors I.A. Kane of the Univ. of…
Mars Curiosity Rover Explores Stratigraphy of Gale Crater: Finds Multiple Transitions Between Drier and Wetter Climates
Gale Crater’s central sedimentary mound (Aeolis Mons or, informally, Mount Sharp) is a 5.5-km-tall remnant of the infilling and erosion of this ancient impact crater….
Organic Biomorphs: Experiments Show the Record of Early Life Could Be Full of “False Positives”
For most of Earth’s history, life was limited to the microscopic realm, with bacteria occupying nearly every possible niche. Life is generally thought to have…
Ancient Human Civilization May Have Been Controlled by Dust
When early humans began to travel out of Africa and spread into Eurasia over a hundred thousand years ago, a fertile region around the eastern…
What the New Discovery of Ancient Super-Eruptions Indicates for the Yellowstone Hotspot
Throughout Earth’s long history, volcanic super-eruptions have been some of the most extreme events ever to affect our planet’s rugged surface. Surprisingly, even though these…