Direct stress measurements inside deforming quartz reveal how its strength changes with temperature, improving models of continental crust deformation.
minerals
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Visualizing and Hearing the Brittle–Plastic Transition
Simultaneous optical, mechanical, and acoustic measurements reveal that brittle microcracking and crystal-plastic twinning in calcite generate distinguishable acoustic signals.
Posted inThe Landslide Blog
The 28 January 2026 landslide at the Rubaya coltan mine complex in the Democratic Republic of Congo
The Landslide Blog is written by Dave Petley, who is widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides. Whilst I was skiing in the French Alps last week, there were a couple of significant landslides. The highest profile event was the vast and intriguing landslide at Niscemi in Sicily (located […]
Posted inResearch & Developments
Trump Administration to Speed Up Permitting for Deep Sea Mining, Even Beyond U.S. Boundaries
NOAA has finalized a rule that will expedite the permit and license application process for deep seabed mining and allow companies to mine beyond U.S. jurisdictional boundaries.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Detecting Remagnetization with Quantum Diamond Microscopy
Scientists reconstruct the magnetization timeline of serpentinized rocks from the Troodos ophiolite by investigating remanent magnetization-carrying structures with a Quantum Diamond Microscope.
Posted inNews
Crystal Clusters Contain Clues to Magma’s Past and Future Eruptions
It’s now become easier to forecast the next eruption of Alaska’s Bogoslof volcano. New research led by Pavel Izbekov, a volcanologist at the Alaska Volcano Observatory, is applying the foundations of diffusion chronometry—the study of chemical change in crystals over time—to a new eruption forecasting approach. Izbekov’s team used crystal clusters and their collective records […]
Posted inScience Updates
Tracing Iron’s Invisible Transformations Just Beneath Our Feet
A new method that adds synthetic iron minerals to soils sheds light on hard-to-observe soil and sediment processes and may have a host of other applications in the Earth sciences and beyond.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Atomic-Scale Insights into Supercritical Silicate Fluids
Water-induced depolymerization enhances fluid mobility in deep Earth, offering new insights into magma transport and isotope signatures in arc lavas.
Posted inResearch & Developments
Trump Moves to Allow Seabed Mining in International Waters
A new executive order aims to establish the United States “as a global leader in seabed mineral exploration and development both within and beyond national jurisdiction.”
Posted inNews
A 30,000-Year-Old Feather Is a First-of-Its-Kind Fossil
A new analysis of a fossil found in 1889 has unveiled the presence of zeolites—and an entirely new mineralization method.