The gas forms naturally through many processes, including radioactive decay in the crust. But Zwaan’s team focused on “serpentization,” where water interacts with iron-rich rocks from the Earth’s mantle to
Volcanoes are typically found near the borders of tectonic plates, born from clashes between those giant slabs of rock as they drift on top of the mantle layer between Earth’s core and crust. Classic examples of such volcanoes are those that make up the so-called Ring of Fire on th...
While it’s now the most well-charted, Zealandia is far from the only “lost continent” on Earth. That’s because, despite what your third grade teacher taught you, what makes a continent a continent has less to do with its geography and more to do with its geology. Continental crust,...
“We thought that tubeworm larvae might disperse through these spaces, being drawn in with cold water entering the Earth’s crust through cracks in the rocks. This water mixes underground with hot vent fluids and then is expelled elsewhere, taking the la...
Like a giant broken-up cookie whose pieces float atop a sea of scalding milk, Earth's outer shell is made of (less-tasty) rocky rafts that constantly bump into and dive beneath each other in a process called plate tectonics. So what happens to those hunks of disappearing crust as they...
Interestingly, the newly found nursery, shown in the June 2023 images below, is near a low-temperaturehydrothermal vent, a place where hot or warm mineral-rich seawater flows from Earth's crust. This suggests some octopus species intentionally brood their eggs around these vents. (Another octopus...
A Canary Islands volcano pushed rivers of molten lava through the earth. Now scientists and explorers trek through the cooling underground, looking for insights into life on this planet—and perhaps on others.
Living creatures produce most of the methane on Earth. But scientists haven’t found convincing signs of current or ancient life on Mars, and thus didn’t expect to find methane there. Yet, the portable chemistry lab aboard Curiosity, known as SAM, or Sample Analysis at Mars, has continually...
While it’s unlikely we’ll find this new phase of ice anywhere on the surface of Earth, it is likely a common ingredient within the mantle of Earth as well as in large moons and water-rich planets outside of our solar system.
Hidden Hydrogen Can Power The World if We Find It 28 American Cities Are Sinking Into the Earth ‘Dark Comets’ May Have Ferried Water to Earth Could Yellowstone Have a Huge Source of Helium? Why Won't Bolivia’s ‘Zombie Volcano’ Stay Dead?