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 2024
The GeoNerd News 2023
The GeoNerd News 2021-2022  

11/28/25 Ethiopian Volcano Erupts for the First Time in Nearly 12,000 Years of Scientific Records

11/28/25 A Planet Slammed Into Earth 4.5 Billion Years Ago, Forming the Moon. The Projectile May Have Been Our Neighbor

11/26/25 A.I. Reveals Signs of Early Life in 3.3-Billion-Year-Old Rocks. Next, It Could Continue the Search in Space

11/17/25 Paleontologists Unearthed Australia's Oldest Known Crocodile Eggshells. The Reptiles' Relatives May Have Hunted From the Trees

11/14/25 The Florentine Diamond Was Thought to Be Lost to History. It's Actually Been Safely Tucked Away in a Canadian Bank Vault All Along

11/13/25 This Amateur Fossil Hunter Discovered a 151-Million-Year-Old Insect—and It's a New Species

11/12/25 Archaeologists Excavating a Roman Fort in Britain Discovered a Rare Red Gemstone Engraved With a Surprising Design

11/10/25 Researchers Used Space Dust to Build a Timeline of 30,000 Years of Arctic Sea Ice

11/7/25 One Glacier's 'Out of This World' Retreat Might Have Set a Modern Record. Now, Scientists Pieced Together What Happened

11/6/25 Astronomers Detect the Brightest and Most Distant Black Hole Flare Ever Seen

11/6/25 Researchers Found Hundreds of Mysterious Dimples on the Seafloor Near Antarctica. Now They Know What Creature Made Them

11/3/25 This Tiny Tyrannosaur Could Settle a Huge Scientific Debate

10/30/25 Scientists Discover 'Frosty' Polar Rhino That Roamed the Canadian Arctic 23 Million Years Ago

10/30/25 Scientists Finally Know What This 'Mummified' Dinosaur Looked Like

10/28/25 Earth Is Getting Dimmer—and the Northern Hemisphere Is Losing Brightness Faster Than Scientists Expected

10/27/25 The Dinosaurs of North America Were Thriving Up Until an Asteroid Wiped Them Off the Face of the Earth, Scientists Argue

10/23/25 A Giant Kangaroo Bone Is Challenging the Idea That Humans Wiped Out Australia's Megafauna

10/21/25 Discovery of First Fossil Hand Linked to P. Boisei Suggests the Bygone Human Relative Could Have Used Tools

10/21/25 A Brief and Amazing History of the Pleiades, Stars That Captivated Ancient Civilizations and Inspired Poets

10/16/25 Meet the Extinct Camels of North America, From Ice Age Giants to Sheep-Size Runners

10/15/25 The Best Places in America to See Fossils

10/15/25 Scientists Resurrect 40,000-Year-Old Microbes From Alaskan Permafrost. What They Found Raised Worries About the Future of a Warming Arctic

10/13/25 A Little Boy Found a Strange Stone on the Beach. Archaeologists Told Him It Was a Neanderthal's Hand Ax

10/6/26 By 2100, Humans Might See a Glacier-Free Sierra Nevada for the First Time Ever

10/6/25 Five Incredible Dinosaurs You've Probably Never Heard About

9/26/25 How Marsquakes Have Helped Researchers Investigate the Depths of the Red Planet's Interior

9/26/25 Paleontologists Discover Megaraptor Fossil With a Crocodilian's Leg Still in Its Mouth

9/26/25 Researchers Find Evidence of a Mysterious Giant Asteroid Impact, but They Don’t Know Where Its Crater Is

9/23/25 Exoplanet Discoveries Pass the 6,000 Mark, Shedding Light on How Our Solar System Compares to the Rest of the Universe

9/22/25 Paleontologists Discover Earliest Known Dome-Headed Dinosaur in Excellent Condition, Shedding Light on Its Mysterious Anatomy

9/22/25 Nothing Short of Magical': Scientists Discover a Dinosaur Bone Nearly 800 Feet Beneath a Parking Lot at a Denver Museum

9/22/25 Astronomers Say Earth Has a Newly Discovered 'Quasi-Moon,' a Companion That Shares Its Orbit Around the Sun

9/19/25 112-Million-Year-Old Amber Samples Preserve a Snapshot of an Ancient Forest

9/18/25 Baby Pterosaur Fossils Reveal Mid-Flight Injury and Watery Death, Helping Solve a Paleontological Mystery

9/18/25 How Prepared Are We for a Rare and Powerful Solar Event?

9/17/25 Paleontologists Directly Date Dinosaur Eggs for the First Time, Shedding Light on the Cretaceous World 85 Million Years Ago

9/17/25 Glacial Melting in Alaska Has Created a New Island

9/16/25 Mysterious Craters Discovered on the Bottom of Lake Michigan Could Hold Lessons About Early Life on Earth

9/15/25 Asteroid-Deflecting Missions May Need to Hit Asteroids in the Perfect Spots to Prevent Future Collisions

9/15/25 Scientists Shed Light on the Mysterious 'Cold Blob' in the North Atlantic Amid a Search for Its Cause

9/12/25 What Led Life to Flourish Roughly 520 Million Years Ago?

9/12/25 NASA Discovers 'Clearest Sign' Yet of Ancient Life on Mars in a Rock Studied by the Perseverance Rover

9/9/25 Did the Dwarf Planet Ceres Once Host Life? Astronomers Suggest Chemical Energy Could Have Fueled Microbes Long Ago

9/8/25 See When Fabulous Fall Foliage Will Peak in Your State With This Interactive Map

9/8/25 Scientists Investigate the Bacteria That Colonized Extinct Mammoths—and Uncover the Oldest Known Microbial DNA From a Host

9/4/25 From Dinosaur Scratches to Insects in Amber, How Paleontologists Uncover Prehistoric Courtship

9/4/25 Could These 80,000-Year-Old Stones Be the World's Earliest Known Arrowheads?

8/30/25 Astronomers Spot a Rare Quadruple Star System in the Milky Way, Shedding Light on Mysterious Brown Dwarfs

8/29/25 Oldest Known Fossil of an Armored Ankylosaur Is 'Far Weirder' Than Paleontologists Expected

8/28/25 New Research Reveals That the Asteroid Bennu Likely Originated on Outskirts of the Solar System 

8/28/25 Telescopes Reveal Surprising Chemistry of a Rare Interstellar Object Passing Through Our Solar System

8/28/25 She Spent Three Weeks Digging for a Diamond for Her Engagement Ring—and Unearthed a 2.3-Carat Stunner

8/21/25 Before Whales Took to the Sea, These Ten Species Walked on Land

8/19/25 Researchers Discover Fossilized Teeth That May Have Come From an Unknown Hominin Species

8/18/25 Volunteers Discover 115-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Tracks Revealed in the Wake of Devastating Texas Floods

8/14/25 Newly Discovered Prehistoric Whale Is 'Deceptively Cute'—It's Tiny but Has a Mouth Full of Razor-Sharp Teeth

8/14/25 A Student Spotted a Jawbone at a Beach. It Turned Out to Be a New, Mouse-Sized Mammal That Lived Among Dinosaurs

8/11/25 French Tourist Finds 7.46-Carat Diamond at Arkansas State Park

8/11/25 Dinosaur Teeth Provide Key Clues to Earth's Climate Past, Revealing High Levels of Carbon Dioxide

8/11/25 A Meteorite Tore Through a Georgia Home's Roof. It Turns Out the Space Rock Is Older Than Our Planet

8/7/25 Ancient Romans Loved Fossils Just as Much as We Do, Even Though They May Not Have Fully Understood What They Were

8/6/25 Fossils Reveal the Face of an Extinct Nine-Foot-Long 'Millipede,' the Largest Arthropod to Ever Live

8/5/25 See the Faces of Two Sisters Who Toiled Away in a Neolithic Mine 6,000 Years Ago

8/4/25 What Would It Be Like to Live on an Ice Planet? 

7/31/25 Paleontologists Stumble Across 15-Million-Year-Old Fish Fossils That Are So Well Preserved, Their Last Meals Are Intact

7/31/25 Paleontologists Identify a 'Rapacious' Velociraptor Relative With Powerful Hands and a Strong Bite

7/30/25 Rare Fossil Suggests Some Dinosaurs May Have Sounded Like Birds and Shared Similar Vocal Anatomy

7/29/25 Italian Hiker Discovers Animal Tracks From a Time Before Dinosaurs, Hinting at a Prehistoric Ecosystem

7/29/25 Trove of Fossils Uncovered in the Grand Canyon Offers a Rare Glimpse Into Cambrian Life, With Toothy Worms and Slug-Like Mollusks

7/25/25 Meet Ten Tyrannosaurs That Came Before T. Rex, From Small, Feathery Creatures to 30-Foot-Long Bone-Crushers

7/23/25 This Surprising Ancient Reptile Had a Colorful, Corrugated Sail on Its Back. New Research Suggests It Was Used to Communicate

7/23/25 Scientists Will Melt the World's 'Oldest Ice' to Reveal Its Secrets and Uncover a Climate Record of 1.5 Million Years

7/22/25 Astronomers Discover 'Ammonite,' a Mysterious Distant Object That Could Shed Light on Our Solar System's History

7/21/25 Fossil Flipper Reveals Ichthyosaurs Hunted in Lethal Silence With Unique Adaptations for Stealth

7/19/25 For the First Time, Astronomers Capture 'Smoking Gun' of Early Solar System Formation

7/18/25 As Interest in Deep-Sea Mining Grows, Scientists Raise Alarms About the Possible Ecological Consequences

7/17/25 A Chicago-Sized Iceberg Broke Off From Antarctica, Revealing a Hidden Ecosystem Never Seen Before

7/17/25 Have Never Confirmed a Meteorite From Mercury. Could These Space Rocks From the Desert Be the First?

7/17/25 Dinosaurs Gathered to Perform Mating Dances With Kicks and Spins at This Site in Colorado—and You Can Go See It for Yourself

7/16/25 Scientists Recover Ancient Proteins From Animal Teeth Up to 24 Million Years Old, Opening Doors to Learning About the Past

7/15/25 Preserved Blood Vessels Discovered in a Rib Bone from the World's Largest T. Rex Could Shed Light on How Dinosaurs Healed

7/14/25 A Paleontologist Matched Two Halves of the Same Fossil Stored at Different Museums—and Discovered a New Species

7/11/25 Giant Sloths and Many Other Massive Creatures Were Once Common on Our Planet. With Environmental Changes, Such Giants Could Thrive Again

7/10/25 'Nothing Short of Magical': Scientists Discover a Dinosaur Bone Nearly 800 Feet Beneath a Parking Lot at a Denver Museum

7/10/25 How Volcanoes Are Born Across the World

7/9/25 Experts warn: Three U.S. regions at risk of possible 'mega-tsunami'

7/9/25 Bear-Sized Giant Beavers Once Roamed North America, and They're Now the Official State Fossil of Minnesota

7/9/25 A Massive Underwater Fossil Find Includes Remains From Ancient Human Ancestors

7/9/25 Melting Glaciers Will Lead to More Volcanic Eruptions, Study Suggests. Now, All Eyes Are On Antarctica

7/8/25 The Largest Martian Meteorite in the World Is Heading to Auction and Could Sell for $4 Million

7/8/25 A Rare, Pregnant Ichthyosaur Fossil Discovered in Chile Is Revealing More Secrets About the Early Cretaceous World

7/7/25 A Bone Bed From the Dawn of the Dinosaurs Has Revealed the Oldest Known Pterosaur Found in North America

7/4/25 A Hunter Was Out Looking for Deer in West Texas. He Found a Rare Mammoth Tusk Instead

6/30/25 'Enigmatic' Dog-Sized Dinosaur Reveals a New Species That Scampered Around Jurassic North America

6/30/25 Rare Amber Fossils Capture 'Zombie' Fungus Infecting Insects During a Time When Dinosaurs Still Walked the Earth

6/26/25 These Lizards Mysteriously Survived the Asteroid Strike That Killed the Dinosaurs—and Their Descendants Are Still Alive Today

6/25/25 After Crocs and Lemurs Went Extinct on the Mainland, Many Survived on Islands for Millions of Years

6/20/25 A Jar of Fossil Bones Long Stored at a Museum Led Scientists to Discover a Goblin-Like Lizard From 76 Million Years Ago

6/17/25 Archaeologists Are Recreating the Long-Lost Recipe for Egyptian Blue, the World's Oldest Known Synthetic Pigment

6/13/25 These 'Dragon Prince' Fossils Spent Decades in Museum Drawers. Now, They Could Rewrite the T. Rex Family Tree

6/10/25 First Fossil Evidence That Sauropods Were Herbivores Supports a Widespread Assumption About the Long-Necked Dinosaurs

6/9/25 Smuggled Out of France During a Bloody Revolution, Marie Antoinette’s Shimmering Pink Diamond Is Heading to Auction

6/9/25 NASA Spacecraft Orbiting Mars Captures Image of Giant Ancient Volcano Just Before Dawn

6/5/25 These Tiny, Beautiful Fossils Detail the History of the Ocean

6/4/25 Tourists Are Stuffing Coins Into the Cracks of the Giant's Causeway, Damaging the Iconic Site in Northern Ireland

6/4/25 Mount Etna's Spectacular Monday Eruption Marks the Volcano's Most Intense Activity in Years

6/2/25 Scientists Find the First Evidence of Birds Nesting in the Arctic Alongside Dinosaurs

5/29/25 The Fearsome Megalodon Ate Basically Whatever It Wanted to Reach Its Daily 100,000-Calorie Need, Study Suggests

5/29/25 A 164-Foot Tsunami Pushed This Enormous Boulder Atop a Cliff in Tonga 7,000 Years Ago

5/29/25 Giant Sloths the Size of Elephants Once Walked Along the Ground. Here's How the Massive Animals Evolved and Declined

5/26/25 How the Largest Volcanic Eruption in Human History Changed the World

5/26/25 The World’s Oldest Forest Has 385-Million-Year-Old Tree Roots

5/26/25 Amazing Fossil Preserves Teenage Tyrannosaur’s Last Meal

5/23/25 Our Teeth May Descend From Sensitive Bumps on Prehistoric Fish Armor, New Research Finds

5/23/25 This Deposit of 'Weird' Cretaceous Amber Could Reveal Hints to Long-Forgotten Tsunamis in Japan

5/21/25 The U.S. Ran Its First Space Weather Preparedness Drill—Here's How It Went

5/19/25 Fossil Hunters Discover Earliest Known Footprints of a Reptile-Like Creature, Pushing Back the Timeline of Their Evolution

5/16/25 The Famous, Feathered Dinosaur Archaeopteryx Could Fly, Suggests New Study of a 'Beautifully Preserved' Fossil

5/16/25 The Secrets of How Life Began May Be Hidden Inside the World’s Oldest Rocks

5/15/25 Five Places Where You Can Still Find Gold in the United States

5/15/25 A Trove of Ice Age Fossils Buried in a Wyoming Cave Is Rewriting Our Understanding of Prehistoric Animals

5/13/25 Mysterious Fossil Found in Museum Storage Turned Out to Be a New, Extinct Lizard Species

5/12/25 That Time We Bombed a Volcano

5/8/25 Scientists Stumbled Upon an Active Volcanic Eruption in a Mid-Ocean Ridge for the First Time Ever

5/7/25 Astrophysicists Track Down the Mysterious Cosmic Origins of Gold and Other Heavy Metals in Our Galaxy

5/6/25 Fossils Reveal Enormous, Crocodile-Like Reptiles Survived for Millions of Years Longer Than Previously Thought

5/2/25 Why Have Birds Never Gotten as Big as T. Rex?

5/2/25 A Single Prehistoric Bone Might Rewrite the History of the World’s Strangest Mammals

4/29/25 Geologists Stumble Upon Remains of Giant 'Sea Monster' in Mississippi, Likely the Largest Mosasaur Ever Identified in the State

4/25/25 Scientists Find the Mysterious Source of the Massive 1831 Volcanic Eruption That Cooled Earth and Made the Sun Appear Blue

4/24/25 The Ancient 'Terror Crocodiles' of North America Weren't Alligators After All, DNA and Fossils Suggest

4/24/25 50-Million-Year-Old Footprints Open a 'Rare Window' Into the Behaviors of Extinct Animals That Once Roamed in Oregon

4/23/25 NASA's Lucy Spacecraft Just Flew by a Strange, Peanut-Shaped Asteroid. See the New Images From the Approach

4/23/25 (originally published 2015) An Iceberg Flipped Over, and Its Underside Is Breathtaking

4/22/25 Meet the National Museum of Natural History Volunteer Preserving Prehistory One Microfossil at a Time | Smithsonian Voices | National Museum of Natural History Smithsonian Magazine

4/21/25 Sunscreen, Clothing and Caves May Have Given Modern Humans an Edge Over Neanderthals When Earth's Magnetic Field Wandered

4/21/25 As Norway Considers Deep-Sea Mining, a Rich History of Ocean Conservation Decisions May Inform How the Country Acts

4/18/25 How to Watch the Lyrid Meteor Shower at Its Dazzling Peak

4/17/25 From Massive Eyes to Shark-Like Tails, Seven Amazing Adaptations That Helped Prehistoric Reptiles Thrive at Sea

4/17/25 Chemical Hints on a Distant Planet Offer 'Strongest Evidence Yet' for Life Outside Our Solar System, Astronomers Say

4/16/25 The Moon's Far Side Is Strangely Dry—Lunar Samples Suggest It's Much More Parched Than the Side That Faces Earth

4/6/25 Enormous, Crocodile-Sized Amphibians Mysteriously Died Together in Wyoming 230 Million Years Ago

4/2/25 See for Yourself One of the World's Rarest Red Diamonds at the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum

4/2/25 Death Toll Passes 2,000 After Magnitude 7.7 Earthquake Hits Myanmar, Among the Most Powerful Quakes in the Region Since 1900

3/27/25 Dinosaur With Two Massive, Sloth-Like Claws Is on 'Another Level' of Weird—Even Among Its Unusual Group of Relatives

3/26/25 See the Stunning Sapphire Ring Belonging to a Medieval Bishop That Just Sold at Auction

3/24/25 Scientists Detect 'Unexpected' Oxygen in the Most Distant Galaxy Ever Found, Defying Ideas About the Early Universe

3/24/25 How Far Did Neolithic Britons Carry Stonehenge's Most Famous Boulder?

3/19/25 Paleontologists Stumble Across 15-Million-Year-Old Fish Fossils That Are So Well Preserved, Their Last Meals Are Intact

3/17/25 A Hunter Was Out Looking for Deer in West Texas. He Found a Rare Mammoth Tusk Instead

3/13/25 Students Walked Past This Rock for 20 Years. It Turned Out to Host 66 Dinosaur Footprints From the Jurassic Period

3/11/25 Megalodon Might Have Been Longer and Skinnier Than Previously Thought, Growing Up to 80 Feet

3/10/25 Oldest Known Impact Crater Discovered in Australia

3/4/25 See Stunning Illustrations of Prehistoric Life From One of the Most Renowned Paleoartists in the World 

3/3/25 See the Striking New Images From the Blue Ghost Lunar Lander, Now the Second Private Spacecraft to Touch Down on the Moon

2/27/25 How a Fragile Insect Living 100 Million Years Ago Becomes a Fossil

2/26/25 The Red Dust on Mars Might Be a Different Mineral Than Scientists Thought, Shedding Light on the Planet's Past 

2/24/25 Fossil Tour Guide Discovers Giant, Purple Dinosaur Footprint While Walking Along a U.K. Beach

2/20/25 A Homeowner Found Huge, Fossil Teeth While Mowing the Lawn. Then, Excavations Revealed a Complete Mastodon Jaw

2/19/25 Fossil Hunter Discovers Gigantic Crab in New Zealand—a New, Extinct Species

2/18/25 Tiny Quakes Discovered Deep Within Greenland's Ice Sheet Could Change Sea-Level Rise Predictions, Study Suggests

2/14/25 Five Unusual Ways People Used Lead—and Suffered For It

2/14/25 Volcanic Unrest' at Alaska's Mount Spurr Suggests 50-50 Chance an Eruption Could Be Coming

2/12/25 Earth's Inner Core Is Changing Shape, Study Finds, Indicating Even More Dynamic Shifts Deep Within Our Planet

2/10/25 Two of the Moon's Grand Canyons Were Formed in Just Ten Violent Minutes, New Study Suggests

2/10/25 Rare Neck Fossil With Puncture Mark Suggests a Prehistoric Crocodilian Snacked on a Young Pterosaur 76 Million Years Ago

2/7/25 Rare Fossil of 183-Million-Year-Old 'Sea Monster' Reveals Both Smooth and Scaly Skin

2/6/25 Paleontologists Discover Fossil of the Oldest Known Modern Bird—but It Raises More Questions Than It Answers

2/4/25 The 'Ghost' Haunting This South Carolina Town Might Have an Earthly Explanation, Scientist Says

2/4/25 National Treasure: The Fearsome Science Behind the T. rex, the King of the Dinosaurs

2/3/25 Everything You Want to Know About Dinosaur Sexual Anatomy and Reproduction, From Their Genitalia to How They Laid Eggs

1/31/25 Astronomers Discover an Asteroid With a 1.6 Percent Chance of Hitting Earth in 2032—Here's Why You Shouldn't Panic

1/30/25 Fossil Hunter Discovers 66-Million-Year-Old Vomit in Denmark, Offering a Clue to the Cretaceous Food Chain

1/28/25 Curiosity Rover Spots Ancient Water Ripples on Mars, Hinting at a Past With Shallow, Ice-Free Lakes

1/24/25 How the Largest Volcanic Eruption in Human History Changed the World 

1/24/25 Earth's Magnetic North Pole Is Shifting Toward Siberia and Raising Questions About Unusual Movement

1/22/25 How a Mass Extinction Driven by Ancient Volcanoes Led to the Age of the Dinosaurs

1/22/25 Fossilized Poop Reveals How Extinct, Flightless Birds Helped Spread New Zealand's Colorful Fungi

1/16/25 An Undersea Volcano Near Oregon May Erupt in 2025, Scientists Predict. It Could Help Improve Eruption Forecasts

1/16/25 Meteorite Crash in Canada Is Caught by Home Security Camera in Likely World-First Video Footage

1/13/25 Everything You Want to Know About the Sex Lives of Dinosaurs, From Scratching the Ground to Battling With Horns | Smithsonian

1/13/25 Meet Punk and Emo, Two Angsty-Looking Fossils From 430 Million Years Ago That Shed Light on Early Mollusk Evolution

1/10/25 Scientists Drill 1.7 Miles Into Antarctic Ice, Revealing 1.2 Million Years of Climate 

1/9/25 A Novel 'Kiss and Capture' Event Gave Pluto Its Largest Moon, Charon, New Study Suggests

1/8/25 Scientists Find the Mysterious Source of the Massive 1831 Volcanic Eruption That Cooled Earth and Made the Sun Appear Blue 

1/7/25 A Quarry Worker Felt Strange Bumps While Digging. They Turned Out to Be the Largest Dinosaur Trackway in the U.K.

12/30/24 11 Dazzling Celestial Events to See in 2025, From a Total Lunar Eclipse to Rare Planetary Alignments

12/26/24 Newly Described Fossil From Wyoming Sheds Light on When Frogs and Toads Lost Their Teeth

12/16/24 The Top Ten Dinosaur Discoveries of 2024