The GeoNerd News 2024
Geology (along with mineralogy and paleontology) is fascinating, there’s no end to the amazing things that Mother Earth comes up with. This page shares some of the exciting geological discoveries and events that are in the news. This list is updated periodically, so check back for more browsing fun.
These news items are culled from the Smithsonian Museum’s Smart News service. It shares technically accurate reports of new findings in many fields, including earth science, making these a great starting point for exploring what Mother Earth is cooking up for us.
Your input is greatly appreciated – if you know of any exciting geo-news, or a news source, email us the link at info@taosrockers.com and we’ll have a look.
For previous year's GeoNerd News articles, visit:
The GeoNerd News 2023
The GeoNerd News 2021-2022
9/23/24 'Matching' Dinosaur Footprints Discovered in Africa and South America
9/20/24 Dinosaurs Evolved Feathers for Far More Than Flight
9/19/24 Did Earth Once Have a Ring Like Saturn?
9/17/24 Four Places to Find Fossilized Shark Teeth in the United States
9/10/24 How Large Gold Nuggets Form in Quartz Crystals During Earthquakes
9/5/24 An Ancient Asteroid Smashed Into Jupiter's Moon Ganymede and Tipped It Over
9/4/24 Why Did Dinosaurs Have Horns? It May Not Have Been Simply for Defense
8/28/24 20,000-Year-Old Columbian Mammoth Bones Discovered in Texas
8/27/24 Our Moon Was Likely Covered in a Magma Ocean Long Ago
8/23/24 A Fossilized Blood-Engorged Mosquito Is Found For the First Time Ever
8/23/24 Largest Diamond Since 1905 Unearthed by Miners in Botswana
8/19/24 Rare Fossils Give Clues to How Tardigrades Survived Mass Extinctions
8/19/24 13,600-Year-Old Mastodon Skull Uncovered in Iowa
8/15/24 Mars Hosts a Giant Reservoir of Water Underground, We Just Can't Easily Reach It
8/14/24 Rare Seven-Foot Mammoth Tusk Unearthed in Mississippi Creek
8/13/24 Slow-Motion Ripples in Earth's Mantle Built Mysterious and Stunning Highland Landscapes
8/12/24 Iconic 'Double Arch' Rock Formation Collapses in Utah
8/8/24 The 50-Million-Year-Old Treasures of Fossil Lake
8/6/24 Scientists Find Water Molecules in Lunar Rock Sample for the First Time
8/5/24 Hidden Underground Magma Pools Fueled Iceland's Volcanic Eruptions, Study Suggests
8/1/24 Meet the Scientist Venturing to Remote Canada in Search of the Earth’s Oldest Rocks
7/31/24 The Largest T. Rex Could Have Been 70 Percent Heavier Than Fossils Suggest
7/29/24 Mars Rover Finds Three Possible Signs of Ancient Life on a Single Rock
7/29/24 Two Rare Jurassic Skulls Could Help Unlock the Secrets of Mammals' Evolutionary Success
7/29/24 No, Dinosaurs Did Not Trudge Through Thick Rainforests
7/26/24 Taco-Shaped Creature Had a 'Major Edge' in Evolution—and 30 Pairs of Spiny Legs
7/25/24 Watch a Yellowstone Hot Spring Explode Into a Boiling Column of Mud, Water and Rock
7/25/24 Inside the Fight to Save the Indiana Dunes, One of America's Most Vulnerable National Parks
7/24/24 Geologists Uncover Remnants of Earth’s Mantle That Have Lasted Over 2.5 Billion Years
7/24/24 From Cisterns to Temples, These Twelve Underground Worlds Are Open for Exploring
7/21/24 Scientists discover "dark" oxygen being produced 13,000 feet below the ocean surface
7/20/24 Accidentally exposed yellowish-green crystals reveal "mind-blowing" finding on Mars
7/19/24 Amid Its Volcanic Eruption, Pompeii Was Also Rocked by an Earthquake
7/12/24 Has Life on Earth Survived More Than Five Mass Extinctions?
7/9/24 How the Structure of a Mammoth Meteorite Reveals the Rough and Tumble Nature of the Asteroid
7/8/24 Did the Extinction of the Dinosaurs Pave the Way for Grapes?
7/6/24 Before the Dinosaurs, This Massive Salamander-Like Predator Ruled Earth’s Swamps
7/1/24 Earth's Inner Core May Be Slowing Its Spin, Another Study Suggests
7/1/24 Volcanic Ash Preserved Trilobite Fossils in Surprising Detail at 'Prehistoric Pompeii'
6/23/24 Why Mount Rainier is the US volcano keeping scientists up at night
6/21/24 An Ancient Beach Buried by Mount Vesuvius' Eruption Is Now Open to the Public
6/20/24 Dinosaur With Giant, Loki-Like Horns Has the 'Craziest, Coolest' Headgear
6/18/24 The ‘Ultimate Honor’: Why a Colorful Mineral Honors the Smithsonian‘s Namesake
6/17/24 There’s a Better Way to Teach the California Gold Rush
6/14/24 Whoops, We’ve Been Looking at a Really Important Fossil Upside Down
6/14/24 A Giant Interstellar Cloud May Have Once Enveloped Earth, Potentially Causing Ice Ages
6/12/24 Astronomers Discover Water Frost on Mars' Tallest Volcanoes
6/10/24 This Word Was Rejected by Geologist, but ...
6/5/24 Kids Discover Tyrannosaurus Rex Fossil in North Dakota
6/4/24 Hawaii's Kilauea, One of the World's Most Active Volcanoes, Erupts Again
5/31/24 World's Largest Stegosaurus Skeleton Ever Found Heads to Auction
5/30/24 Another Volcanic Eruption Hits Iceland
5/29/24 Venus Might Still Have Active Volcanoes, as Recent Lava Flows
5/27/24 Some Dinosaurs Evolved to Be Warm-Blooded 180 Million Years Ago
5/20/24 Forensic Geology: Has the Mystery of the 'Mona Lisa' Background Been Solved?
5/16/24 Journey Into the Fiery Depths of Earth’s Youngest Caves
5/16/24 Some Dinosaurs Evolved to Be Warm-Blooded 180 Million Years Ago, Study Suggests
5/15/24 Lightning Dazzles Onlookers Watching the Eruption of Volcán de Fuego in Guatemala
5/7/24 Chicago Museum Unveils the 'Most Important Fossil Ever Discovered': the Feathered Dinosaur Archaeopteryx
4/24/24 How the Great Alaska Earthquake Shook Up Science
4/22/24 Extensive Desert 'Lava Tubes' Sheltered Humans for 7,000 Years, Archaeologists Find
4/18/24 Two Vandals at Lake Mead Toppled Rock Formations Made From 140-Million-Year-Old Dunes
4/18/24 You Can Visit the World's Largest Continuous Dinosaur Trackway, Now on Protected Public Land
4/16/24 The Seven Most Amazing Discoveries We’ve Made by Exploring Mercury
4/11/24 Medieval English Coins Were Made With Melted Byzantine Silver
4/3/24 The Oldest Stone Tools Yet Discovered Are Unearthed in Kenya
3/29/24 Man With Broken Metal Detector Unearths Largest Gold Nugget Ever Found in England
3/26/24 Stone Age People Survived a Supervolcano Eruption by Adapting to Dry Periods
3/21/24 Alaska's Frigid North Slope Was Once a Lush, Wet, Dinosaur Hotspot, Fossils Reveal
3/18/24 Iceland Volcano Spews Lava in Fourth and Most Powerful Eruption in Three Months
3/12/24 'Strange' New Prehistoric Bird Discovered in China and Named for David Attenborough
2/21/24 Iceland's Recent Volcanic Eruptions Are Unleashing Deep Secrets
2/20/24 These 3,000-Year-Old Treasures Were Forged From Meteoritic Iron
2/16/24 Scientists Detect Water on the Surface of Asteroids for the First Time Ever
2/13/24 A 'Very Rare' Kind of Space Rock Fell in Germany—and Scientists Recovered the Pieces
2/9/24 Paleontologists Discover Two New Shark Species From Fossils in Mammoth Cave National Park
2/9/24 Iceland Volcano Erupts Again, Cutting Off Hot Water From Towns and Spewing Fountains of Lava
2/8/24 Paleontologists Are Still Unraveling the Mystery of the First Dinosaur
2/6/24 Uncovering the Secrets of Colombia's Rich Fossil Deposits
2/5/24 A 22 Million-Year-Old Mangrove Forest Was Discovered on Panama’s Barro Colorado Island
2/5/24 Rare Fossil Shows Trees Looked Very Different 350 Million Years Ago
1/26/24 Seven Natural Phenomena Worth Traveling For
1/25/24 Whales Once Walked Along the Coasts of North America
1/24/24 Newly Discovered, Parrot-Like Dinosaur Roamed North America Alongside T. Rex
1/12/14 Fossils Reveal a Possible New Tyrannosaur Species, the Closest Relative of T. Rex
1/11/24 This 288-Million-Year-Old Fossilized Scrap of Skin Is the World's Oldest
1/11/24 Miners Discover Seven-Foot Mammoth Tusk in North Dakota
1/10/24 These Entrancing Maps Capture Where the World's Rivers Go
1/8/24 The Mass Extinction That Wiped Out the Dinosaurs
1/5/24 Scientists Uncover the Earliest Fossil Evidence of Photosynthesis