In 1869, John Wesley Powell was studying layers of rock in the Grand Canyon when he noticed an unconformity in the layers. Around a billion years were missing, and the problem turned out to be global.

In the whole history of Earth's climate, few events are as extreme as those that geologists call "Snowball Earth." ...

The Department of Geology is about much more than rocks and minerals. Its faculty and students perform cutting-edge research on everything from how glaciers react to climate change to how molten lava ...

A thin slice of the ancient rocks collected from Gakkel Ridge near the North Pole, photographed under a microscope and seen under cross-polarized light. Field width ~ 14mm. Credit: E. Cottrell, ...

The discovery could usher in a wave of investigations into the evolution of Earth’s mantle, a layer of material about 1,800 miles deep that extends from just beneath the planet’s thin crust to its ...

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Reston, VA – The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Association of American State Geologists (AASG) announced that they have developed an updated geologic time scale and color scheme for use in ...

At first glance, Mars might seem rather different from our own planet. Mars is dry, with little atmosphere, and no liquid water on its surface. It is half the size of Earth, lacks a planetary magnetic ...

A thin slice of the ancient rocks collected from Gakkel Ridge near the North Pole, photographed under a microscope and seen under cross-polarized light. Field width ~ 14mm. Analyzing rocks in thin ...