A meteorite hitting Earth at many kilometres per second puts ‘ground zero’ target rocks under immense pressure. A shock wave faster than the speed of sound can result – and new materials created.
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Articles on Geology
Displaying 181 - 200 of 347 articles
Gravity, not magma, is forcing Etna to move, increasing the chances of collapse.
The ocean floor holds unique information about Earth’s history. Scientific ocean drilling, which started 50 years ago, has yielded insights into climate change, geohazards and the key conditions for life.
How do the narrow ribbons of sand that line the Atlantic and Gulf coasts withstand the force of hurricanes? The answer lies in their shape-shifting abilities.
2018 brought the announcement of a new geologic age that covers the last 4,200 years. How do scientists divide up Earth’s timeline and what do these demarcations mean?
New research shows that injecting wastewater deep underground can cause earthquakes far from the injection site. It also raises questions about which rock layers are the safest injection targets.
Melbourne lies at the eastern end of a volcanic province, but when’s it going to blow? Understanding the geology of Melbourne and comparing it to Hawaii is really helpful in calculating risk.
Some diamonds come from depths of more than 650km. Tiny imperfections in these gems give us clues about what’s happening in Earth’s hidden geological layers.
The $444 million awarded to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation has been criticised as a politically calculated move. But governments have been asking what the reef can do for them ever since colonial times.
A geologist explains the basics about these elements, which are crucial for modern electronics.
Zirconia is a mineral with a crystal structure made from the elements zirconium and oxygen. It looks pretty like diamond, but is only worth a fraction of the value.
Sapphires and rubies are both crystals of the mineral corundum - but with different impurities to create blue and red hues. Australian sapphires are renowned for being inky blue.
When it comes to the geological record, airbrushing out humans’ impact on the environment makes little sense.
A new array of seismometers provides a glimpse of what’s happening deep beneath this geologic fault. New data help explain why the north and south of the region are more seismically active than the middle.
What makes a stone a gem? It boils down to a few key qualities: beauty and durability. But opal, the national gemstone of Australia, is an anomaly - it’s soft.
When magma rises towards the surface gas bubbles start to form. Whether or not they can escape as the magma is rising affects how explosive the eruption will be.
It’s been half a century since Jim Bowler discovered Mungo Lady, which changed the course of Australian history. But now he says the find has fallen off the national radar, leaving a legacy of shame.
The Big Bang created a cloud of dust and rocks that included a lot of rocks that were made of ice, like giant snowballs. That’s where some of the water came from.
Wine drinkers are taking notes from the land now too, but it may not be entirely useful.
Scientists have long thought most nitrogen in Earth’s ecosystems comes from the air, but new research shows it also is released as rocks weather. This could boost plant growth and help sequester carbon – but not fast enough to avert climate change, as some pundits have claimed.
Top contributors
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Professor of Geology, University of Adelaide
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Professor of Palaeobiology, University of Leicester
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Professor in Earth Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and Emeritus Professor of Mineral Physics, University of Cambridge
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Professor of Geophysics, University of Sydney
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Professor of Planetary Geosciences, The Open University
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Associate Professor of Earthquake Science, The University of Melbourne
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Professor of Geochronology, Curtin University
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Adjunct professor, UNSW Sydney
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Harold T. Stearns Professor of Earth Science, Wesleyan University
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Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor Emeritus, The University of Melbourne
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Professor of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, Bournemouth University
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Professor of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington
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Associate Professor - Igneous Petrology/Volcanology, The University of Queensland
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Honorary researcher, The University of Melbourne
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ARC DECRA Fellow, University of Sydney
