A geologist who left academia found a new way to stay connected to Earth, one ultramarathon at a time.
geology
Posted inFeatures
Elizabeth Cottrell: From Collecting Rocks to Curating the National Rock Collection
Research geologist Elizabeth Cotrell turned a love of science into a career at one of the nation’s most important geological resources.
Posted inNews
One Billion Years Ago, Northern Minnesota Nearly Split Apart. Now, Two Companies Want to Mine the Aftermath.
A continental rift created valuable mineral deposits beneath a remote wilderness beloved by recreationists.
Posted inNews
The Breakup of Gondwana Over 100 Million Years Ago May Be Why Antarctica Has Ice Today
A rift event set off a domino effect of geologic processes that created conditions ripe for Antarctica’s glaciation, a new study suggests.
Posted inNews
Heavy Rainfall Inflates Mount Fuji
The uplift, several centimeters in magnitude, is likely caused by water pooling in the mountain’s shallow aquifers. The effect is shorter lived than deformation caused by magmatic activity.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
From Grains to Bands: Modeling Deformation in Porous Rocks
How do bands emerge in highly porous rocks? A study based on energy minimization reveals how microscale heterogeneity and stress conditions drive the formation of complex deformation bands.
Posted inNews
Mongolian Mountains Rose When the Crust Bounced Back
A plate folded, the lithosphere sank, and up popped a mountain range.
Posted inNews
Eastern Africa Is Splitting Apart, but Not Where We Expected
The Turkana Rift Zone in Kenya entered a critical stage in continental breakup about 4 million years ago.
Posted inNews
Scientists Discover South America’s First Space Glass Fields, in Brazil
Tektites, rare natural glasses formed by ancient asteroid impacts, were found stretching across more than 900 kilometers of the country’s interior.
Posted inFeatures
Salt of the Earth: Vast Underground Salt Caverns Are Preserving Our History—and Just Might Power Our Future
From health spas to film storage, salt mine caverns have been put to use in surprising ways—and they’re now poised to contribute to the generation and storage of clean energy.