I've just finished this appetizing and informative book, by USGS seismologist Susan Hough. It's a whole new approach to geology and to California. Hough includes road directions to visit the ... Read More

Science blogger extraordinaire Carl Zimmer explains how leaves arose on the Earth's land plants at an extraordinary time--in the early Carboniferous, when a severe greenhouse climate gave way to glaciers. ... Read More

In the Geology Forum appears an announcement of a part-time electronic archivist to help the U.S. Geological Survey with its inventory of rocks, cores, samples and so forth--in Santa Cruz, ... Read More

Members of the Geological Society of America (and the general public) get a monthly email newsletter, "GSA Connections." Last month's newsletter featured a question from my Plate Tectonics Geo-Quiz. How ... Read More

Legislators in Michigan are considering licensing geologists in that state. Thirty-eight states require licenses of geologists doing important work such as inspecting construction sites, evaluating water supplies, mapping soils and ... Read More

Here's a new set of links to get deeper into Mercury in advance of next week's space launch to the inner planet. Included are professional review articles, an pro/amateur telescope ... Read More

Mercury was the subject of a brief flyby in the 1970s, but a new spacecraft mission launching next month will bring the innermost planet back to the limelight. Here's what ... Read More

Here's another image from Central Park showing a particularly good example of what the glaciers did to the rocks there. The grit-filled ice rubbed the ancient bedrock smooth, even shiny, ... Read More

This glacial erratic stands sentinel in the southeast part of Central Park. When I came upon it last Wednesday, it had been there for some 12,000 years after the last ... Read More

Today I'll be wandering all over Central Park carrying pages from this geologic field guide by Charles Merguerian, whose public-spiritedness and love of rocks I salute. When I come back ... Read More

This impressive volcanic formation overlooks Edinburgh, Scotland. Edinburgh has been a center of geological research since 1770, including Hutton and Holmes among other prominent names, and today its schools are ... Read More

A landmark conference on, um, landmarks took place the other week in China: the First International Conference on Geoparks. Geoparks are the leading edge of the geoheritage movement, which aims ... Read More

Plate tectonics has gotten widely known--geologists feel like it's our own little Theory of Relativity. But like that jewel of physics, it's widely misunderstood. Textbooks and Web sites repeat a ... Read More

The Associated Press is reporting that the conflict diamond trade out of the Congo is alive and well. A long-term scandal over the smuggling of African diamonds prompted an international ... Read More

I didn't know that Ernst Mayr, the great evolutionist, is not only still alive but just celebrated his hundredth birthday—with his wits as sharp as ever. He's been in the ... Read More

I said the other day that Saturn's rings were getting all the attention while the Titan specialists were waiting for a few months, but I was wrong--images from the first ... Read More

Here's a quick chart to refresh your understanding of those "beachball" symbols on the map that symbolize an earthquake's signature. Just one more handy feature in the Seismology category.

The Cassini mission is concerning itself with the rings of Saturn. Why should Earth scientists care? Well, those complicated disks of icy chunks are the nearest thing we have to ... Read More

A couple weeks ago I called James Joyce's "Ulysses" a great book for geologists. Another part of the lay literature of interest to geoscientists would be the stories of Sherlock ... Read More