The GeoNerd News 2023
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.
12/19/23 Volcano Erupts in Iceland After Weeks of Earthquake Activity
11/28/23 Fossil Hunter Pulls Massive Mammoth Jawbone Out of Florida River
11/22/23 Five Incredible Fossils From Across the World
11/15/23 Iceland Braces for a Likely Volcanic Eruption as Earthquakes Increase
11/10/23 Wind May Have Helped Sculpt Egypt's Famous Sphinx
11/3/23 Mysterious Lumps in Earth's Mantle May Be Remains of the Crash That Formed the Moon
10/2/23 A Massive, Two-Fault Earthquake May Have Struck the Pacific Northwest 1,100 Years Ago
10/5/23 New 'Giant' Species of Long-Necked Dinosaur Discovered in Spain
Is it a bird? A plane? A boulder? No…. it’s the world’s largest pumpkin:
10/11/23 Minnesota Man Sets World Record With 2,749-Pound Pumpkin
10/27/23 Mars' Core May Be Smaller Than Thought, Wrapped in a Sea of Molten Rock
10/23/23 The Moon Is 40 Million Years Older Than Thought, Lunar Rock Samples Suggest
9/26/23 How a Smithsonian Curator Discovered the Hope Diamond’s Many Secrets
9/26/23 Earth's Next Supercontinent Could Wipe Out Mammals in 250 Million Years
9/25/23 A Sample of Ancient Asteroid Dust Has Landed Safely on Earth
9/19/23 How Pterosaurs Might Inform the Next Generation of Flight
9/12/23 This Exoplanet May Be a Distant Ocean World, James Webb Telescope Finds
8/31/23 Drought Reveals 113-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Tracks in Texas
8/28/23 Scientists Look to Ancient Hawaiian Reefs for Clues About Future Sea-Level Rise
8/24/23 Rocks Are Earth's Greatest Storytellers
8/23 How Do Death Valley’s ‘Sailing Stones’ Move Themselves Across the Desert?
8/14/23 Mud Cracks on Mars Hint at Conditions That Could Have Formed Life Long Ago
8/3/23 These 508-Million-Year-Old Fossils May Be Earth’s Oldest Swimming Jellyfish
8/1/23 Amber Fossil Shows ‘Hell Ant’ Was Unlike Anything Alive Today
7/21/23 How many dinosaurs remain undiscovered?
7/19/23 Rare fossil may show small mammal attacking a dinosaur
7/12/23 Marine fossils unearth story about Panama's deep past
7/11/23 Empty office buildings are being turned into vertical farms
7/4/23 Canada's Crawford Lake may help redefine our understanding of human impact on Earth
6/29/23 Eight Menacing Saber-Toothed Creatures That Stalked the Earth Long Ago
6/27/23 Megalodons Were Warm-Blooded—and It Was a Blessing and a Curse
6/27/23 Tonga Volcanic Eruption Sparked the Most Intense Lightning Storm Ever Recorded
6/22/23 Humans Have Shifted Earth's Axis by Pumping Lots of Groundwater
6/21/23 These 'Grinning' Triassic Reptiles Likely Died of Starvation
6/20/23 Half of the Inhabitants of This Australian Opal Capital Live Underground
6/18/23 A Bear That Looked Like a Raccoon and Had a Dangerous Appetite
6/12/23 Scientists Extract Rocks From Earth’s Mantle
6/9/23 Ten Ancient Stories and the Geological Events That May Have Inspired Them
6/8/23 Hawaii's Kīlauea Volcano Is Erupting Again
6/5/23 Woman Finds Mastodon Tooth on California Beach
6/8/23 These Mysterious Deep-Sea Creatures Live in a Potential Mining Zone
6/7/23 New Beaked Dinosaur Species Found in Utah
6/4/23 Why the Jurassic Coast Is One of the Best Fossil-Collecting Sites on Earth
5/19/23 Some in Pompeii died of an earthquake before the fatal eruption of Mt Vesuvius
5/10/23 Possible meteorite crashes into New Jersey bedroom
5/3/23 A treasure trove of fossils in Wales reveals secrets of early animal life
5/1/23 World's newest national park (Australia) protects some of the most ancient fossils
4/27/23 Five Places Where You Can Still Find Gold in the United States
4/20/23 The Story Behind the Smithsonian’s Newest Gem: the Exquisite Lion of Merelani
4/13/23 Medieval Eclipse Records Help Scientists Understand Volcanic Eruptions
4/13/23 Volcanic Eruption Spews Ash 12 Miles Into the Air in Russia
4/12/23 Paleontologists Discover 52-Million-Year-Old Bat
3/21/23 How Do Volcanic Smoke Rings Form? New Clues in the Vapor
3/21/23 Long Before Trees Overtook the Land, Earth Was Covered by Giant Mushrooms
2/21/23 Robots may have a tough time identifying evidence of life on Mars
2/9/23 Fossil 340-pound Penguin Found in New Zealand
2/2/23 Archaeologists Find 2,000-Year-Old Gemstones in Drain Beneath a Roman Bathhouse
1/23/23 Earth's Core Spin Direction May Be Reversing
1/20/23 Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Museum Opens in May - With Fossil Collecting Onsite (Rowan University, NJ)
1/17/23 Broken Fossils Show How Dinosaurs Fought
1/13/23 The Largest Known Flower Preserved in Amber
01/04/23 And you thought it was cold here ... A view of winter on Mars
01/03/23 The Science Behind the Oldest Trees on Earth