There's a billion-year gap in Earth's geological history. A new study seeks to explain the mystery.

Much of our understanding of Earth's past is derived from stratigraphic records exposed in rock outcrops or recovered from drilled cores. These records span immense time intervals, from thousands to ...

A layer of rock just 520 million years old sat directly on top of ancient rock dating back 1.4 to 1.8 billion years.

In 1869, John Wesley Powell was studying layers of rock in the Grand Canyon when he noticed an unconformity in the layers. Around a billion years were missing, and the problem turned out to be global.

The discovery could usher in a wave of investigations into the evolution of Earth’s mantle, a layer of material about 1,800 miles deep that extends from just beneath the planet’s thin crust to its ...

A thin slice of the ancient rocks collected from Gakkel Ridge near the North Pole, photographed under a microscope and seen under cross-polarized light. Field width ~ 14mm. Credit: E. Cottrell, ...

Science in the silver age: Aetna, a classical theory of volcanic activity -- Some Neo-Platonic and Stoic influences on mineralogy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries -- Mechanical mineralogy -- ...

Evolution and geologic history reveal how life and Earth have changed over time. The National Academies explore fossil records, genetic evidence, and natural processes that shape our planet.

A thin slice of the ancient rocks collected from Gakkel Ridge near the North Pole, photographed under a microscope and seen under cross-polarized light. Field width ~ 14mm. Analyzing rocks in thin ...