crust

Granite geology: how granite forms, minerals, and composition

Granite is one of the most intriguing types of rock -- and one of the most common type of igneous rocks.

The Asthenosphere: The mysterious world beneath

Discover the secret, plastic realm below Earth's surface: the asthenosphere.

The Thickest Layer of the Earth: The Mantle

The mantle is a whopping 2,900 km (1,802 miles) thick, and it's by far the thickest layer of the Earth.

The crust of Mars may be more complicated and "evolved" than we thought

Mars' geology isn't quite as funky as Earth's -- but it's not all that plain either.

Mars' water didn't escape; it's trapped in the red crust

Not being tectonically active has its drawbacks.

Ice ages may be caused by tectonic activity in the tropics, new study proposes

Pixar left this part out of Ice Age.

The Earth had continental crust much earlier than thought -- potentially life, too

The Earth's 'young' phase might have been much shorter than we assume.

What is the Wilson Cycle? The builder and slayer of supercontinents

There're two ways you can find out how supercontinents form. Reading this is the one where you don't have to wait millions of years.

Silica rains helped form Earth's crust four and a half billion years ago

Talk about hailstone, right?

Scientists discover another layer in the Earth's mantle

Most people tend to think of the Earth in terms of crust, mantle and core, and while those are indeed the largest "layers" (you can't properly call the mantle a layer though), each one of them is made from other, thinner layers. Now, researchers from the University of Utah have identified another one of these thinner layers, 930 miles beneath our feet.

Scientists find direct evidence that CO2 heats the Earth's crust

When we're talking about CO2 emissions and global warming, we generally mean atmospheric CO2 - where the gas is spewed and generates the greenhouse effect, warming our atmosphere and subsequently, our planet. But a new study conducted by US researchers found that CO2 actually warms the Earth's crust directly; the more CO2 we emit, the hotter our planet will get.

Deep lying bacteria found, reproduce only once in 10.000 years

A surprisingly diverse range of life forms exists deep in the oceanic crust, but they live at an extremely slow pace. Long lived bacteria, which reproduce only once in 10.000 years, have been found in rocks 2.5km below the ocean floor, rocks which are 100 million years old. Viruses and fungi have also been found […]

Understanding magma in the mantle: rocks melt at greater depth than previously thought

Magma forms much deeper than geologists previously believed, according to a new study conducted by Rice University. Magma and Crust The group led by geologist Rajdeep Dasgupta put very small samples of peridotite under very large pressures, to find out if the rock can liquify, at least in small amounts, as deep as 250 […]