How do narrow ribbons of sand like North Carolina's Outer Banks withstand the force of hurricanes? The answer lies in their shape-shifting abilities.
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Articles on Geology
Displaying 1 - 20 of 164 articles
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.
The remote Pilbara region of Western Australian formed many billions of years ago when the Earth was much hotter and the crust softer than it is today.
Tides are the largest they have been for 250m years.
Large asteroids have hit Australia over many millions of years and the evidence is in the landscape, if you know where to look.
Top contributors
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Professor in Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge
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Associate professor, University of Melbourne
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Professor of Geology, University of Adelaide
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Chair of Geology & Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor, University of Melbourne
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Professor of Astrobiology, UNSW
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Earth and paleo-climate scientist, Australian National University
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Instrument Scientist, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation
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Professor of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington
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Professor of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, Bournemouth University
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Research Fellow, University of Adelaide
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Associate Professor of Geology, University of Western Australia
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Professor, Chair in Geology & Petroleum Geology, University of Aberdeen
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Lecturer at Department of Geology, Faculty of Earth Sciences and Technology, Institut Teknologi Bandung
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NERC Advanced Research Fellow and Lecturer in Geology, University of Hull
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Associate Professor in Volcanology and Geochemistry, Macquarie University
