Cobalt deposits in the Democratic Republic of Congo, one of Earth's largest cobalt-mining regions, are 150 million years younger than previously thought, according to a new study. The study provides critical insight into exploration for cobalt, an important component in rechargeable batteries. […]

Why did the first big, complex organisms spring to life in deep, dark oceans where food was scarce? A new study finds great depths provided a stable, life-sustaining refuge from wild temperature swings in the shallows. […]

Earthquake hazard assessment often overlooks intra-slab earthquakes. EarthScope Transportable Array data for the 2016 Iniskin and Nov. 30, 2018 Anchorage earthquakes in Alaska offer new insight into potential causes of heavy shaking from these intra-slab events. […]

Our future on Earth may also be our past. Researchers show that humans are reversing a long-term cooling trend tracing back at least 50 million years. And it's taken just two centuries. […]

Barely living 'zombie' bacteria and other forms of life constitute an immense amount of carbon deep within Earth's subsurface -- 245 to 385 times greater than the carbon mass of all humans on the surface, according to Deep Carbon Observatory scientists nearing the end of a 10-year international collaboration to reveal Earth's innermost secrets. […]

In a white paper, Christoph Rosol, Benjamin Steininger, Jürgen Renn and Robert Schlögl outline the significance of digitalization in the Anthropocene and outline the background and goals of the new research field of geoanthropology. The researchers aim to analyse global change in a comprehensive interdisciplinary approach of natural sciences, humanities and technology, developing perspectives for the conservation of the Earth's habitat. […]

Scientists from Germany's Kiel University and British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have used data from the European Space Agency (ESA), Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) mission to unveil key geological features of the Earth's lithosphere – the rigid outer layer that includes the crust and the upper mantle. […]

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. […]