Read the latest positive news, breakthroughs, and inspiring stories about geology, curated daily by BrightWire.
Arizona's otherworldly Chiricahua, sacred to Apache peoples and packed with towering rock spires, just earned national park status after a century as a monument. The volcanic wonderland where four ecosystems meet is now America's 64th national park.
An amateur astronomer planning a camping trip spotted a mysterious circle on satellite images that turned out to be an ancient meteorite crater. Scientists confirmed the 25-kilometer-wide impact site is one of the most significant discoveries in recent years.
A Washington geologist spent decades being ridiculed for claiming a catastrophic flood carved Eastern Washington's landscape in days instead of millennia. He was right, and his discovery changed geology forever.
A bright white rock formation in southern Madagascar looks so much like the Moon's surface that astronauts on the International Space Station photographed it as a window into our nearest neighbor's past. The rare rock type, anorthosite, helps scientists understand lunar history without leaving our planet.
A Quebec camper planning a wilderness trip spotted a mysterious circle on satellite maps that scientists confirmed as a massive ancient asteroid impact. The 16-mile-wide crater is the largest discovered in six years.
A Quebec stargazer planning a camping trip spotted a mysterious 25-kilometre ring on satellite images that turned out to be an ancient meteor crater hidden in plain sight for millions of years. Scientists confirmed the discovery after wading through 50 metres of water to reach the remote site and finding rare shatter cones that prove a massive space rock once struck Earth there.
Yellowstone's geology team just cleaned out the park's famous geysers and hot springs, finding over 20,000 pieces of trash including 280 hats, Pokémon cards, and even a tiny copy of The Vampire Diaries. The surprising haul shows both the challenge of protecting natural wonders and a team's dedication to keeping them pristine.
Researchers have synthesized two never-before-seen minerals that might exist deep in Earth's mantle, potentially solving the mystery of where our planet hides massive amounts of ancient water. These lab-created minerals could explain unusual zones at the bottom of the mantle and reveal secrets about Earth's formation.
A lawyer spent 26 years drilling for a meteorite treasure that had vaporized on impact, losing $600,000 but proving Earth's first meteor crater. His family still owns the landmark today, and science vindicated everything except his business plan.
Researchers discovered that thunderstorms create underground vibrations called "thunderquakes" that can reveal hidden caves, sinkholes, and water beneath our feet. Using fiber-optic cables already buried in cities, they're turning everyday storms into free underground scanners.
Scientists discovered a massive ancient cliff system that may explain how the Grand Canyon's deepest rocks were exposed nearly a billion years before the Colorado River carved the iconic landscape. The finding also helps solve one of geology's greatest mysteries: where a billion years of rock disappeared to.
Scientists in southwest China found natural hydrogen seeping from the earth at nearly pure concentrations, matching the cleanest sources ever discovered. The find could point to vast underground reserves of this zero-carbon fuel.