updated 01/07/2008

A geyser is a vent in Earth’s surface that periodically ejects a column of hot water and steam. Old Faithful is the world's best known geyser. Located in Yellowstone National Park (USA), it erupts every 60 to 90 minutes and blasts a few thousand gallons of boiling hot water between 100 and 200 feet into the air. Geysers are extremely rare features. They occur only where there is a coincidence of unusual conditions. Worldwide there are only about 1000 geysers. read more

Dozens of land areas of the Earth sit below current sea level. The lowest land area is the shoreline of the Dead Sea Depression and the largest below-sea-level depression by surface area is the Caspian Depression.

Most major depressions are associated with tectonic plate boundaries. They form when converging plates deform or when spreading centers open.

Find out where and more the ten lowest places on earth are at geology.com/below-sea-level

Is the Willamette discovered by Hughes and Dale on land owned by the Oregon Iron and Steel Company in what is now West Linn in 1902. At 15fi tons, the iron meteorite is the largest in the United States.

The two decided they should buy the land where the meteorite sat. The steel company wouldn't sell, so Hughes stole the meteorite using "horse, windlass and steel cable." In 1905 Oregon Iron and Steel filed a suit for the return of the meteorite and won. The massive hunk of iron was later sold and has been at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City since 1906 until a  30-pound chunk of the meteorite was put up for auction on Oct 28 by Bonham's auction house in New York. where it failed to bring the $1.1 million minimum price sought by its owner, Darryl Pitt. The high bid of $300,000 for the piece of the meteorite came by telephone and matched the minimum price for the next highest priced object. The Willamette was withdrawn.

Petoskey stone formed by the fossilization of an ancient coral, hexagonaria. and are found in the Gravel Point Formation of the Traverse Group. They are fragments of a coral reef originally deposited during the Devonian period, about 350 million years ago. The name Petoskey is a derivation of the name Pet-O-Sega, the name given to the son of a Frenchman who married an Ottawa Indian princess and later became the tribes' chief . The translation means "rising sun" or "rays of dawn".

Of all the minerals mined from the Earth, none is more useful than gold. Its usefulness is derived from a diversity of special properties. Gold conducts electricity, does not tarnish, is very easy to work, can be drawn into wire, can be hammered into thin sheets, alloys with many other metals, can be melted and cast into highly detailed shapes, has a wonderful color and a brilliant luster. Gold is a memorable metal that occupies a special place in the human mind. Throughout the history of our planet almost every established culture has used gold to symbolize power, beauty, purity and accomplishment. Today we continue to use gold for our most significant objects. . . .  read more about gold at geology.com

On June 6th, 1912 a tremendous blast sent a large cloud of ash skyward and the eruption of the century was underway. People in Juneau, Alaska, about 750 miles from the volcano, heard the sound of the blast – over one hour after it occurred. For the next 60 hours the eruption sent tall dark columns of tephra and gas high into the atmosphere. By the time the eruption ended the surrounding land was devastated and about 30 cubic kilometers of ejecta blanketed the entire region: . more than all of the other historic Alaska eruptions combined; thirty times more than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens and three times more than the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo, the second largest in the 20th Century.
Read more at geology.com

Should you pay big money for bottled water or carry your canteen? Bottled water sales are exploding! According to the Beverage Marketing Corporation the  wholesale value of bottled water sold in the United States during 2006 was about $10.99 billion - a 60% increase over 2001. This article explains the sources of bottled water, compares its purity and safety to tap water, covers a little history about the commercial water industry, and explores the benefits of bottled water as a replacement beverage. Read on at geology.com

The Earth's magnetic field is shaped approximately like that of a bar magnet and, like a magnet, it has two magnetic poles, one in the Canadian arctic, referred to as the North Magnetic Pole, and one off the coast of Antarctica, south of Australia, referred to as the South Magnetic Pole.

The North Magnetic Pole is slowly drifting across the Canadian Arctic. The Geological Survey of Canada keeps track of this motion by periodically carrying out magnetic surveys to re-determine the Pole's location. The most recent survey, completed in May, 2001, determined an updated position for the Pole and established that it is moving approximately northwest at 40 km per year. The observed position for 2001 and estimated positions for 2002 to 2005 are given in the table. 

You can read more about the earths magnetic field and how it effects human activities at the Geological Survey of Canada website.

At today's level of consumption, the average newborn infant will need a lifetime supply of 800 pounds of lead, 750 pounds of zinc, 1,500 pounds of copper, 3,593 pounds of aluminum, 32,700 pounds of iron, 26,550 pounds of clays, 28,213 pounds of salt, and 1,238,101 pounds of stone, sand, gravel, and cement.

Information source: factfaq.shtml

Learn more about these earthquakes visit the National Science Foundation website.

The most common theory is geodes form inside already existing hollows within volcanic or sedimentary rock. Groundwater laden with silica and other minerals fills these hollows. Over thousands of years minerals precipitate out of the water, leaving a silica gel on the interior walls of the cavity that hardens into rock as it dries. As this process reoccurs, through leaching, layers begin to form distinct, inwardly pointing crystals. Geodes that are empty missed these later cycles.

To learn more about how geodes form and where to find them visit isgs.uiuc.edu or wikipedia.org

California is not the only place in the US with the potential for a major earthquake. Scientists estimate that Memphis has a 25-40 percent probability of a magnitude 6.0 or greater earthquake during the next 50 years. The diagram at left of similar size earthquakes (1895 New Madrid Seismic Zone earthquake and 1994 Northridge earthquake) show how earthquakes in the central and eastern United States affect much larger areas than earthquakes in the West. Read More

The deepest hole drilled into the earth was begun in 1970 on the Kola Peninsula, Russia. It reached a depth of 7.6 miles of its planned 9.3 miles.

Current deep drilling projects include: The San Andreas Scientific Drilling Project in Parkfield CA (2.5 mi); The Hawaii Scientific Drilling Project on Hilo, Hawaii (1.8 mi); a 1.1 mile bore hole into an impact crater in the Chesapeake Bay; and the Integrated Ocean Drilling Project in the Atlantic Ocean (.9mi);

Read More about these and other drilling projects going on around the world.

The earliest seismoscope was invented by the Chinese philosopher Chang Heng in A.D. 132. It was a large urn on the outside of which were eight dragon heads facing the eight principal directions of the compass. Below each dragon head was a toad with its mouth opened toward the dragon. When an earthquake occurred, one or more of the eight dragon-mouths would release a ball into the open mouth of the toad sitting below. The direction of the shaking determined which of the dragons released its ball. Read More

 The literal answer is that unless it turns to coal , it doesn't. Petrifaction consists of two process: permineralization,  where mineral rich water soaks into the wood and minerals begin to precipitate out of the solution, and replacement where the wood itself begins to disintegrate and minerals take the place of the original tissues.

Read more or visit the petrified wood forest

The oldest rocks on Earth found so far are the Acasta Gneisses in northwestern Canada near Great Slave Lake (4.03 Ga) and the Isua Supracrustal rocks in West Greenland (3.7 to 3.8 Ga).

Rocks nearly as old are also found in the Minnesota River Valley and northern Michigan (3.5-3.7 billion years), in Swaziland (3.4-3.5 billion years), and in Western Australia (3.4-3.6 billion years). Read more

Mauna Loa, the largest volcano on Earth, is located in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii. Mauna Loa is over 30,000-ft tall from the sea floor to the summit, that’s taller than Mt. Everest!

Find out more about more about volcanoes in Hawaii and get current conditions.

Yellowstone Park was not named for the abundant yellow-colored rhyolite lavas in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone that have been chemically altered by reactions with steam and hot water to create vivid yellow and pink colors. The name is attributed as early as 1805 to Native Americans referring to yellow sandstones along the banks of the Yellowstone River in eastern Montana downstream and northeast of the Park.

The land masses that make up the continents as we know them today looked much different in shape and location in the geologic past.

To see exactly what the earth looked like anytime from 10,000 to 570,000 million years ago you can go to http://wrgis.wr.usgs.gov

Some minerals fluoresce under UV light due to impurities known as activators. The activator absorbs ultraviolet radiation, and in reaction emits a combination of visible light (color). Sometimes the activator electrons get stuck in their high-energy state and the mineral will continue to glow after the UV light is switched off. This is called phosphorescence. Common minerals that fluoresce are Calcite and Fluorite. read more about fluorescence >>

The deepest place is near the Mariana Islands in the Pacific. It is 11,033 meters (36,201 feet) below sea level. If Mount Everest were placed inside of this trench, it would disappear. The deepest part of the trench is named Vitjazdepth. The trench was formed when the Pacific plate collided with the Philippine plate, which also resulted in the formation of the nearby island Guam.

The Marianas trench is sometimes called the 'Challenger Deep' because it was located and named after His Majesty's Ship 'Challenger' of the British Royal Navy in the 19th century.

The largest diamond every found was discovered on January 26, 1905 at Premier Mine in south Africa. The Cullinan diamond weighed 3,106 carats, about 1 1/3 pounds. It was cut into 9 stones, one of which is the worlds second largest diamond, The Star of Africa. It is set in a scepter and is pa part of the British Crown Jewels. 

Learn more about the Cullinan and other diamonds here.

When lightning strikes a sand dune, the high temperature fuses quartz sand grains into glass rod-like structures called fulgurites. These could form anyplace that has both lightning and sand.

The longest known cave in the world is Mammoth Cave, located in Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky. With more than 350 miles of surveyed passages Mammoth Cave is almost three times longer than any other mapped cave in the world.

Mineral elements taken from Earth provide the colors for fireworks. Strontium yields deep reds; copper produces blue; halite yields yellow;  iron filings and charcoal pieces produce gold sparks; barite creates greens; magnesite, zircon, and rutile are used to produce a silvery white color; Bright flashes and loud bangs come from aluminum powder. Read more about how fireworks are made and work in this article: The Scientific Flash Behind Fireworks.

There are roughly 4,000 known minerals, although only about 200 are of major importance. Approximately 50-100 new minerals are described each year.