Marie Tharp was a marine scientist in a man’s world. Robert Smalls was a skilled sailor, but held as a slave. Both are now being honored by the U.S. Navy.
A study of an emerging zone off New Zealand suggests that the process, vital for life on Earth, may at first be localized and then develop into something much larger.
July 30 marks 100 years since the birth of Marie Tharp, a pioneering geologist who created some of the first maps of the ocean floor. We’re celebrating her achievements and legacy with blog posts, giveaways, and more.
Walter Pitman, a seagoing geophysicist who spotted a crucial piece of a huge puzzle that revolutionized the earth sciences, has died.
Lynn Sykes, a pivotal figure in the development of plate tectonics, discusses a new memoir of his career.
On the volcanic Indian Ocean island of Anjouan, scientists are investigating a rock that apparently formed on a far-off continent.
On a small volcanic island in the Indian Ocean lies a geologic enigma—a mass of pure white quartzite sandstone apparently formed on a faraway continent long ago. How did it get there?
Sykes helped to establish plate tectonic theory in the 1960s. He is professor emeritus at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
The Corinth rift is one of the most seismically active areas in Europe. Starting this month, researchers will drill into the rift to discover its past and future.
Off the coast of New Zealand, there is an area where earthquakes can happen in slow-motion as two tectonic plates grind past one another. These slow-slip events create an ideal lab for studying fault behavior along the shallow portion of subduction zones.