Though we often think of the Earth as changing slowly, some events are so catastrophic that they change the landscape irrevocably. Some 15,000 years ago, a massive lake covered what Keep reading
Tag: geology
Vietnam’s Emerald Isles
Vietnam’s Hạ Long Bay is home to more than 1,600 islands, many of them made up of mountainous limestone. The area is famous for its karst features, a type of Keep reading
Dripping Impact
How does water drip, drip, dripping onto stones erode a crater? Water is so much more deformable that it seems impossible for it to wear harder materials away, even over Keep reading
Martian Flyover
Fly over a Martian crater in this incredibly detailed 8K video built from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter imagery. Like Earth’s deserts, Mars is largely shaped by wind, and we get some Keep reading
Dissolving Pinnacles
Limestone and other water-soluble rocks sometimes form sharp stone pinnacles like the ones seen here in Borneo. Scientists have recreated these structures in the laboratory simply by immersing water-soluble substances Keep reading
Lava Landscapes
Lava flows are, by definition, transient. In his LAVA series, photographer Jan Erik Waider explores the changing vistas and textures of Iceland’s Fagradalsfjall volcano eruption. Using a telephoto lens, he Keep reading
Frozen Wind-Sculpted Sands
On the cold, wind-swept beaches of Lake Michigan, the sands sometimes turn into a landscape of miniature hoodoos. Strong winds erode the frozen sand into these shapes, which last only Keep reading
Inside a Super-Earth
When studying exoplanets, scientists often judge habitability by the possibility of liquid water on the planet’s surface. But there is more to Earth’s habitability than water. The liquid iron dynamo Keep reading
Dune Invasion
Migrating sand dunes can encounter obstacles both natural and manmade as they move. Dunes — both above ground and under water — have been known to bury roads, pipelines, and Keep reading
Modelling Volcanic Bombs
When magma meets water on its journey to the surface, the two form a large, partially molten chunk known as a volcanic bomb. As you would expect from their name, Keep reading