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North America's 'broken heart': The billion-year-old scar from when the continent nearly ripped apartThe Midcontinent Rift is a giant tear that formed in what is now the U.S. Midwest 1.1 billion years ago. Nicknamed North America's "broken heart," it is filled with solidified magma and lava.
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Scientists think a hidden source of clean energy could power Earth for 170,000 years — and they've figured out the 'recipe' to find itResearchers have compiled a list of "ingredients" that could help resource exploration companies locate huge reservoirs of clean hydrogen, a critical element in the transition away from fossil fuels.
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Gigantic 'mud waves' buried deep beneath the ocean floor reveal dramatic formation of Atlantic when Africa and South America finally splitEnormous "mud waves" buried under the Atlantic seabed formed 117 million years ago as the Atlantic Ocean opened up.
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Yosemite's ultra-deep canyon may have been carved in part by a ghost volcano and river, provocative research suggestsA river that drained the slopes of a now-vanished volcano may have carved Yosemite Valley's depths during the last 10 million years.
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El Cono: The mysterious sacred 'pyramid' hidden deep in the Amazon rainforestCerro El Cono is a solitary, pyramidal hill in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest whose origins remain mysterious and that holds spiritual significance for Indigenous people.
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Yellowstone holds potentially untapped cache of 'carbon-free' helium for rockets, reactors and superconductorsConventional helium production comes with enormous carbon emissions, so scientists are looking for alternatives in places like Yellowstone, Tanzania's Rukwa Rift and India's Bakreswar-Tantloi province.
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Iran's folded rocks: The crumpled mountains at the intersection of Asia and EuropeIran's folded rocks are a colorful formation that is part of the Greater Caucasus mountains, which formed when the Eurasian tectonic plate collided with the Arabian plate millions of years ago.
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'Quiet Chernobyl' changed Earth's surface so much the planet's mantle is still moving 80 years laterThe land beneath the former Aral Sea in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan is rising and will continue to do so for many decades. Now, scientists have an explanation that involves the sea drying up.
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Study reveals 'flawed argument' in debate over when plate tectonics beganYou don't need plate tectonics to get continental crust that looks modern, a new study finds.
