Burke, a master geologist, traveled the world to inform his studies on plate tectonics, soil formation, erosion, sedimentology, and a host of other topics, including other planets.
geology
Ursula B. Marvin (1921–2018)
This bold mineralogist and feminist bucked norms that deemed geology unsuited for women. She contributed to meteoritics, science history, and petrology, including the analysis of Apollo Moon rocks.
A Rock Guide to Fireworks
Before a firework was red, it was a strontium salt waiting for its moment.
Peering Through Titan’s Haze to Better Understand Its Surface
Variations in grain size and water ice content detected on Saturn’s largest moon offer evidence of geologically related units that resemble the mountain-to-desert transition on Earth.
Challenging the Day Diagram, a Rock Magnetism Paradigm
A critique of the plot routinely used to determine bulk magnetic properties concludes the technique is so ambiguous that new approaches to understanding magnetic mineral assemblages must be developed.
Making Maps on a Micrometer Scale
Geographic information system software, created for mapping cities and continents, works equally well with the minuscule layers and inclusions that record a crystal’s history.
New Insights into Continental Deformation in Northwestern Tibet
A new surface velocity map shows strain localized along major strike-slip features, suggesting the central Tibetan Plateau is not deforming as a fluid in response to gravitational collapse.
Harry W. Green II (1940–2017)
By keenly probing mantle rheology, interactions of deformations and phase transitions, and microscopic features, he made major contributions to petrology, mineralogy, and earthquake science.
On Integrating Sedimentology and Hydrogeology in Streambeds
A new modeling blueprint seeks to unify sedimentology, hydrology, and hydrogeology in the modeling of streambeds.
Acoustic Monitoring of Inelastic Compaction in Porous Limestone
During triaxial compression experiments, acoustic monitoring reveals compaction localization in a high porosity limestone, accompanied by a significant decrease in P-wave velocity.