Sascha Pare

Geologists have known for decades that gold forms in quartz with the help of earthquakes, but now they have worked out exactly how the setting and seismic waves combine to form large nuggets.

Researchers have mapped the path of a giant submarine avalanche that tore through the Agadir Canyon — a deep trench in the Atlantic seafloor off the coast of Morocco — 60,000 years ago.

Al Naslaa is a rock formation in Saudi Arabia's northwestern desert consisting of two huge, symmetrical stone blocks that are separated by a mysterious gap and sit on small pedestals.

Ancient hunters may have mounted Clovis points on sophisticated pikes that fractured inside large mammals like woolly mammoths to inflict fatal injuries, archaeologists say.

In Racetrack Playa, a dry lakebed in Death Valley National Park, meteorological conditions can push rocks weighing up to 700 pounds along the flat ground.

The sea walnut, a type of comb jelly that has become invasive in parts of Europe and Asia, can transform from a sexually mature adult back into its larval form when times are tough.

A team of archaeologists recently excavated the first well-preserved mastodon bones ever found in Iowa, including the prehistoric animal's skull.

The Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon is Earth's largest terrestrial canyon, stretching 314 miles long and almost 20,000 feet from top to bottom at its deepest point in the Tibet Autonomous Region.

Tanzania's outlandish Ol Doinyo Lengai volcano, the only volcano on Earth that is currently erupting carbonatite lava, has been sinking at a rate of 1.4 inches per year for the past decade.

The Salar de Uyuni desert is famous for its gleaming surface waters and hexagonal salt crust patterns, but below this otherworldly landscape lie about 11 million tons of highly sought-after lithium.

Huge iron ore deposits in Western Australia's Hamersley Province formed when major tectonic events led to the breakup of supercontinent Columbia and to the amalgamation of Australia.

Geologists have revealed new details about a recent geyser eruption at Yellowstone National Park, including the shallow depth of the explosion and staggering height of its plume.

Plants growing at the bottom of sinkholes in China's Dashiwei Tiankeng Group don't take up as much carbon as surface plants do, but they have much higher levels of nutrients in their tissues.

A buildup of methane and other fluids in open and closed "systems" in the permafrost could explain why strange, icy mounds sometimes erupt to form giant crater, researchers say.

An air taxi has completed the first forward flight of a hydrogen-fueled aircraft capable of vertical takeoff and landing — and it broke a distance record in the process.

Lake Kivu, one of the African Great Lakes, sits along a tectonic plate boundary called the East African Rift, which is dotted with hot springs that feed carbon dioxide and methane into the water.

A hydrothermal eruption Tuesday (July 23) morning surprised visitors walking among the colorful hot springs in Yellowstone National Park's Biscuit Basin, near the famous Old Faithful geyser.

Researchers have discovered that, unlike other four-legged mammals, hippopotamuses trot at high speeds and become airborne for "quite a large amount of time."

In a global first, scientists working in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the North Pacific Ocean have found that metallic nodules on the seafloor produce their own oxygen, dubbed "dark oxygen."

Coastguards had to tow a 40-foot-long sailboat back to port after two young orcas severely damaged the boat's rudder near Guilvinec in the French region of Brittany.

Scientists consider Last Chance Lake to be an analog for lakes that may have existed on Earth 4 billion years ago and contained the ingredients for early life on our planet.

A coastal taipan named Cyclone recently delivered three times the average amount of venom for its species in one go, setting a new record.

Reports of a daylight fireball and loud booms across New York City and New Jersey suggest a meteor entered the atmosphere above the city and traveled west at 38,000 mph, NASA says.