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zircons

An impact on the surface of Mars creates a shower of debris.
Posted inNews

Martian Meteorites Reveal Evidence of a Large Impact

Katherine Kornei, Science Writer by Katherine Kornei 15 March 202215 March 2022

By analyzing rare Martian meteorites, researchers have uncovered a crystalline structure created by a large asteroid or comet impact that potentially affected the Red Planet’s habitability.

Brown, barren, relatively flat land stretches into the distance, dotted with occasional patches of white snow. The dark blue Arctic Ocean laps the shore. A thin sliver of sky is gray and cloudy.
Posted inFeatures

Updating Dating Helps Tackle Deep-Time Quandaries

by Alka Tripathy-Lang 22 February 20229 December 2022

Geochronologists are finding fresh approaches to familiar methodologies, especially by zapping rocks with lasers to tackle classic Precambrian problems.

Artist’s rendering of Earth’s magnetic field, which connects the North Pole with the South Pole
Posted inNews

Oldest Pole Reversal Shows Early Earth Was Well Suited for Life

by Zack Savitsky 15 December 202115 December 2021

Australian rocks 3.25 billion years old preserved the oldest signs of Earth’s stable magnetic field and quickly moving crust, critical elements of life’s evolution.

Wearing a white lab coat, Yiming Zhang, a doctoral student at the University of California, Berkeley, sits in front of a computer screen, examining data, with a mouse in his right hand. To his left, a gray microscope with four copper-colored rings encircling the stage perches on a black table.
Posted inNews

Diamonds Are a Paleomagnetist’s Best Friend

by Alka Tripathy-Lang 19 October 202114 March 2023

Typical paleomagnetic measurements average a sample’s signal. The quantum diamond microscope helps scientists make micrometer-scale maps of magnetism, showing where a sample locked in its magnetic signatures.

Jane, an anthropomorphized zircon crystal, complete with a face, arms, and legs, experiences stages of development in a magma chamber.
Posted inGeoFIZZ

Meet Jane, the Zircon Grain—Geochronology’s New Mascot

by Alka Tripathy-Lang 27 August 202130 March 2023

In a children’s book written by geochronologist Matthew Fox, he condenses 400 million years of history into 34 playfully poetic pages as he follows the travels of a single grain of sand.

Researchers collect sediments from a rocky stream with a helicopter and steep rock hills in the background
Posted inScience Updates

Earth’s Continents Share an Ancient Crustal Ancestor

by J. Hollis, C. Kirkland, M. Hartnady, M. Barham and A. Steenfelt 23 August 202122 February 2022

How did today’s continents come to be? Geological sleuths found clues in grains of sand.

Grayscale scanning electron microscope image of an unpolished tetrahedral zircon crystal with two laser ablation pits, each between 25 and 30 micrometers in diameter
Posted inNews

Vestiges of a Volcanic Arc Hidden Within Chicxulub Crater

by Alka Tripathy-Lang 15 June 202129 September 2022

Scientists discovered magmatic remnants of a volcanic arc by dating granitic rocks of the middle crust excavated by, and hidden within, the Chicxulub impact crater.

Four maps of the Red River region in different periods of geologic history showing composition of sediment samples
Posted inEditors' Highlights

A River Ran Through It

by Peter van der Beek 19 August 202026 January 2023

The history of river system in southeast Tibet and Indochina reconstructed using the ages of thousands of zircon sand grains in modern and ancient river sediments.

Rocks of the Saglek Block in Labrador
Posted inNews

When Water Met Rock

Lucas Joel by L. Joel 17 May 20196 December 2021

Geologists discover rocks bearing the earliest known evidence of water interacting with rock on Earth’s surface.

The Apollo 14 landing site in Fra Mauro showing the astronaut’s trail of exploration
Posted inNews

Apollo May Have Found an Earth Meteorite on the Moon

Kimberly M. S. Cartier, News Writing and Production Intern for Eos.org by Kimberly M. S. Cartier 28 January 201930 March 2023

The meteorite may have been blasted off of Earth during an impact, mixed with lunar rocks, and brought back to Earth 4 billion years later by astronauts.

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Geophysical Research Letters
“Neural Networks Map the Ebb and Flow of Tiny Ponds”
By Sarah Derouin

EDITORS' HIGHLIGHTS
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“Collaboration Helps Overcome Challenges in Air Quality Monitoring”
By Muki Haklay

EDITORS' VOX
Reviews of Geophysics
“What We Know and Don’t Know About Climate Tipping Elements”
By Seaver Wang

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