A new study could help us understand how our planet was formed. Scientists report that their research shows that Earth's inner core is solid -- a finding made possible by a new method for detecting shear waves, or 'J waves' in the inner core. […]

An international team of earth scientists has linked the establishment of the Mekong River to a period of major intensification of the Asian monsoon during the middle Miocene, about 17 million years ago, findings that supplant the assumption that the river incised in response to tectonic causes. […]

A new method for observing water within ice has revealed stored meltwater that may explain the complex flow behavior of some Greenland glaciers, an important component for predicting sea-level rise in a changing climate. […]

After studying layers of pumice, measuring the amount of crystals in the samples and using thermodynamic models, the team determined that magma moved closer to the surface with each successive eruption. […]

The southeast flank of Mount Etna slowly slides towards the sea. A team of scientists showed for the first time movement of Etna's underwater flank using a new, sound-based geodetic monitoring network. A sudden and rapid descent of the entire slope could lead to a tsunami with disastrous effects for the entire region. […]

Spectacular images of recent volcanic eruptions in Hawaii are a little disheartening – especially given news reports suggesting there is a sleeping volcano under Melbourne that could awaken and erupt at any moment. […]

The Jiachala Formation, which was fed largely from the Gangdese arc, has long been considered to comprise syn-collisional foreland-basin deposits based on the reported occurrence of Paleocene-early Eocene dinoflagellate cysts and pollen assemblages. Because magmatic activity in the Gangdese arc continued through the Late Cretaceous and Paleogene, this scenario is incompatible with U-Pb ages of detrital zircons invariably older than the latest Cretaceous. […]

By mapping the heat escaping from below the Greenland Ice Sheet, a NASA scientist has sharpened our understanding of the dynamics that dominate and shape terrestrial planets. […]

There may be more than a quadrillion tons of diamond hidden in the Earth's interior, according to a new study from MIT and other universities. But the new results are unlikely to set off a diamond rush. The scientists estimate the precious minerals are buried more than 100 miles below the surface, far deeper than any drilling expedition has ever reached. […]

The formation mechanism of the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York has long posed a geologic mystery, say seismology researchers at the nearby University of Massachusetts Amherst. A few have been proposed, but until recently tools for evaluating them were not in place, say postdoctoral fellow Xiaotao Yang and assistant professor Haiying Gao. […]