An international team of geoscientists journeyed to northeastern Oregon, where massive volcanism has been linked with climate warming 16 million years ago. For their study, the scientists zeroed in the Wallowa Mountains, which are laced with enormous sheets of flat magmatic dikes, created when molten rock flowed into cracks and solidified. Credit: Benjamin Black/Rutgers University Volcanoes have played a role in mass extinctions at multiple times in our planet’s geologic history.  Exactly how they kill off everything is dependent on the rapidity with which they erupt. If the eruptions...

One of the most common questions faced by those of us who study other worlds is this, “What good is studying planets when we have issues here on Earth?” Well, it turns out Earth happens to be a planet and sometimes geology can tell us really cool things about...

Our planet is constantly changing under the forces of humans, geology, and even the Sun.  And while we can see what humans do daily and what geology does through quakes and eruptions almost weekly, catching the Sun being its bad self is a lot harder because it’s a lot...