• more about #geology
    LittleDragon: As a volcano fanatic, these are great Christmas presents. more »
    strideo: Love how the lava's exterior get cooled so quickly in these underwater eruptions. It's interesting to think about the two forces at work here. more »
    crashedpc - Haifisch: Hah... "volcano". Everyone knows that's Cthulhu. I bet after the first camera fell into a bit of masonry that was at an obtuse angle but acted like it... more »
    CoffinDodger (If the typos crap. Blame my keyboard): Thats bad, very bad!! I feel sorry for anyone around there when that bitch goes off! On a lighter note.......it looks like an Anus!! more »
    Im_your_Huckleberry: Just think guys if the Yellowstone super volcano ever goes off? It will take out the whole West coast of the U.S. more »
    Brian Fowler: Is that a town (or city) by the water? This can't be good. more »
    gorehound: It must really suck to live anywhere near a volcano like this one. the image looks awesome..........as in awesomely destructive. more »
    gorehound: I wonder if you would trip if you eat a drop of photo #1 ? maybe it is some weird kind of magic microbe poop. more »
    EdificeComplex: From now on when my nephew makes poo in his diaper, I shall call it the "formation of intelligent life!" more »
    TotalFanGirl: The key to intelligent life on Mars is poop? I don't want to be an astronaut anymore if that's where the search for life begins. Ewwww. more »
    ManchuCandidate: Everybody Poops: Microbe Edition more »
    Roklimber: I wonder if this discovery will make these caves more or less poopular... :) more »
    cletar: That's a crappy explanation for Clovis. I don't think archaeological evidence supports that at all. more »
    IraeNicole: If only they had Bruce Willis. more »
    Quilt: Esplodo. more »
    acrobatic rabbit: I watched a PBS special about this theory. and they demonstrated how an impact crater wouldn't be found. Many times comets themselves are pieces of ro... more »
    Dr Emilio Lizardo: Gives new meaning to "America Bashing." more »
    Mount_Prion: Am I the only person here who can't see the phrase "pyroclastic flow" without thinking of the GZA? more »
    neolex: Um.. Sorry, but I must complain; 'Luckily, NASA's International Space Station was watching.' Since when did NASA solely own the ISS; or is the word 'I... more »
    crashedpc - Haifisch: Geoporn! Ooooh yeah, the earth just erupted. Sorry, every time volcanoes are posted and tagged geoporn... more »
  • #geophysicalporn

    Watch a Volcano Erupt Deep Beneath the Ocean

    When an undersea volcano erupted this past May near Samoa, researchers captured video of the blast. Now they've released the footage, giving the rest of the world its first look at the deepest underwater eruption ever caught on film. More »
  • #geophysicalporn

    The Telltale Signs Of A Volcano Preparing To Erupt

    The Mayon volcano in the Philippines has erupted nearly 40 times in 400 years, and it looks primed to go off again. This NASA satellite image shows a small plume of ash or steam blowing west from its summit. More »
  • #madscience

    Lava Caves Filled with the Most Beautiful Excrement in the World

    For years, scientists believed that the colorful deposits found in lava caves around the world were mineral deposits, but more recently they've discovered that the collections — ranging from blue-green drips to shimmering pink hexagons — are actually microbe poop. More »
  • #deathfromabove

    The Comet that Destroyed America

    Dinosaurs may not have been Earth's only creatures to face extinction from above. A team of researchers has found evidence that suggests a comet once hit North America, taking the continent's mammals down with it. More »
  • #geophysicalporn

    NASA Volcano Image Shows Atmospheric Shockwave

    On June 12th, Saychev Peak on Matua Island erupted, hurling ash and steam into the air. Luckily, NASA's International Space Station was watching. This stunning image, from the Earth Observatory, reveals some rare details about this eruption. More »
  • #geophysicalporn

    Record-breaking Flood Surges Down Florida River

    A massive water wall churned its way down Florida's Suwannee River earlier this year, making this one of the biggest flood seasons ever for that state. Now we've got images of the Florida rivers that ate farms and roads. More »
  • #evolution

    47 Million Year Old Skeleton Reveals the Missing Link Between Lemurs and Humans

    Meet Ida, the 47 million year old fossil who may represent one of our earliest known ancestors. She's probably the most complete primate fossil ever discovered, and she explains where humans (and lemurs) come from. More »
  • #geophysicalporn

    Redoubt Volcano Rains Ash and Spreads a Stink of Sulfur Over Alaska

    Mount Redoubt, an Alaskan volcano, has been erupting for over a week. On Monday a satellite captured its latest emission: A huge plume of ash that locals said came with a smell of sulfur. More »
  • #apocalypse

    Scientists Explain How to Cause a Mass Extinction

    Life on Earth probably wouldn't be extinguished by a comet strike alone. Mass extinctions require at least two kinds of mega-events, one of which is often a volcano that erupts for thousands of years. More »
  • #megageophysics

    Where Tectonic Plates Meet in a Volcanic Pool

    You're looking at the Afar Depression in Ethiopia, a 12-foot-wide hot springs that exists at the junction of three massive tectonic plates. It also sits on top of a volcano. More »
  • #madgeophysics

    Was Early Earth a Fiery Hell or Packed with Life?

    Conventional wisdom among geologists has always been that the first several million years in Earth's 4.5 billion-year history were an age of lava and fire. Nothing could possibly live in on the burning planet until at least 3.2 billion years ago - or so scientists thought. A new study of 4 billion-year-old rocks (at left above) published in Nature reveals the early Earth (right) may have been fairly chilly, and also packed with life. More »
  • #marsporn

    The Texture of Martian Geography

    The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), a satellite spinning over the surface of Mars, has revealed the tremendous variations in Martian geography. Here you can see slices of the bizarre surface features created by atmospheric conditions that don't exist on Earth. Want to see more? More »
  • #madgeophysics

    Magnetic Anomaly Map of the World

    This map shows areas on the globe where there are disturbances in the Earth's magnetic field. Here, red indicates a stronger magnetic tug, and blue a weaker one (white lines are the edges of tectonic plates). As you can see, disturbances are fairly regularly distributed, but that doesn't stop UFO enthusiasts from saying aliens have a hand in these magnetic fluctuations. Science, however, has a slightly different explanation for why certain objects (including submarines) create a shift in the magnetic field. More »
  • #postapocalypse

    What Will Remain of Us 100 Million Years After the Apocalypse?

    What will be left of humanity in 100 million years? Geologist Jan Zalasiewicz of the University of Leicester suggests that hyper-evolved rats or aliens (his picks for future scientists) will find scant clues. There will be faint fossils and chemical traces, all packed into thin layers of rock easily disrupted by water, weather and geologic processes. So exactly what evidence of our existence would these future archaeologists find? More »
  • #strangeearth

    A Planet of Boiling Water and Lava

    One of the most gorgeous images from National Geographic's recent photography contest is this one, of a boiling lake under cloudy skies. It looks like what I imagine the methane lakes might look like on Titan. Taken by Ben Hattenbach, this pool of intensely (and naturally) blue water is a geothermal oasis in an arctic desert in Hveravellir, in the Kjolur region of central Iceland. One of the other winners managed to capture an image of boiling rock arcing through the air. More »
  • #marsporn

    The Frozen Waterfalls of Mars

    This deep gorge known as the Echus Chasma was ripped into the Martian soil by gushing water, and scientists speculate that it may once have boasted giant, 4000-meter-high waterfalls. This image, by the European Space Agency's Mars Express satellite, was released this week along with a few others. We've got an even more gorgeous one for you below. More »
  • #extremeliving

    Life Deep Beneath the Ocean Floor Bodes Well for Aliens

  • #martiangeology

    Martian Ice Ages Bolster Case for Life on Red Planet

  • #missiontomars

    Looking for Life on Mars with the Next Generation Rover

    Definitely one of the coolest symposia at AAAS was the one this afternoon devoted to the Martian rovers — past, present, and future. On the panel were NASA's Richard Cook, who helped design Spirit and Opportunity as well as the next Martian rover; Steven Squyres, a Cornell geologist who has been working with Spirit and Opportunity to get as many geological samples as he can while the rovers survive; and Andrew Knoll, a Harvard planetologist who has studied the evidence for Martian water extensively (including whether it could support life as we know it). I've got highlights from the panel below, plus a giant gallery of pictures of a life-sized model of the new rover, the Mars Science Lab Rover (MSL), which will be blasting off late next year and landing on the red planet in 2010.