Olivine
Olivine is the most common mineral in Earth’s upper mantle. This olivine crystal from the mid-ocean ridge in the Pacific contains tiny bits of volcanic glass, a sample of the liquid rock the crystal grew...
Science Spotlight
-
-
Photos reveal recent activity in moon’s crust
New images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft show the moon’s crust is being stretched, forming minute valleys in a few small areas on the lunar surface.
-
Boom and bust cycle of marine biodiversity every 60 million years linked to uplifting of continents
A mysterious cycle of booms and busts in marine biodiversity over the past 500 million years could be tied to a periodic uplifting of the world’s continents, scientists report
-
A hot new island has just surfaced in the Red Sea. What’s going on? Smithsonian scientists explain.
The new island visible in the satellite photograph is the top of a giant shield volcano located on the rift axis in the Red Sea where the continental plates of Africa and Arabia are pulling apart.
-
Q&A: Smithsonian volcanologist Richard Wunderman answers questions about the Aug. 23, East Coast earthquake
Richard Wunderman is managing editor of the Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network and a geologist in the Division of Mineral Sciences at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Following the earthquake that rumbled...
-
500 carats of rough diamonds donated to Natural History Museum
More than 500 carats of rough diamonds were recently donated to the Department of Mineral Sciences of the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum by Jewlers Mutual Insurance Co. of Neenah, Wis.
-
Gale Crater to be landing site for NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory
During a press conference Friday, July 22 at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, NASA announced that Gale Crater will be the landing site for the Mars Science Laboratory. Scheduled to launch in late 2011 and arrive at Mars in August 2012, the Mars Science Laboratory is a rover that will assess the planet’s “habitability”—if it ever was, or is today, an environment able to support microbial life.
-
Nakhla meteorite
On June 28, 1911, the Nakhla meteorite (a piece of which is shown here) fell to Earth at approximately 9 a.m. in the Nakhla region of Alexandria, Egypt. Many people witnessed its explosion in the upper atmosphere before the meteorite shattered into some 40 pieces. Some fragments were buried a meter deep in the ground.
