Bodies of water such as this might have functioned as cradles of life, given their unique biogeochemistry.
geology
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Law and Order for Friction and Faults: One Law to Rule Them All
Faults are made of complex materials with complex behaviors, and having a single model that can predict these behaviors is an advance in understanding deformation and the earthquake cycle.
Posted inNews
Sandy Fingerprints Trace Supply Sources
Geological forensics can trace raw materials back to their source. As global sand demand increases, a new tool could help identify illegal and informal sand mining.
Posted inNews
Quartz-Gobbling Worms Are Weathering Earth’s Soils
New research in mineral weathering shows that earthworms may be an important contributor to Earth’s weathering cycle.
Posted inNews
Sinking Cities and Rising Waters
Climate-driven sea level rise combines with land subsidence in some of Africa’s fastest-growing cities.
Posted inNews
Did These Curious Rock Formations Inspire the Great Sphinx?
New research says it’s plausible the Great Sphinx started life as a geomorphological oddity known as a yardang.
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Digitally Preserving Svalbard’s Fragile Geology
A team of researchers is making the iconic rock outcrops of Svalbard available to the world through an open-source database of virtual geological models.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Optimizing Carbonate Classification on Mars
Combining data from several of the Perseverance rover’s spectroscopic sensors offers a more accurate means to classify carbonate minerals that may hold hints of ancient life.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Mars Has Far Fewer Minerals Than Earth Does
The development of plate tectonics and life on Earth provided avenues for mineral evolution that did not occur on Mars, resulting in relatively limited mineral diversity on the Red Planet.
Posted inNews
Where the Ground Gives Way
Sinkholes are a significant hazard, but where are they most likely to happen? A new study identifies hot spots in the contiguous United States.