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Importance

To humans, deserts appear dead and lifeless - often described as a wasteland. But they are a valuable natural resource, both as a habitat for certain types of plant and animal life, and for their energy potential. Two-thirds of the worldīs crude oil is found by drilling in deserts, and they hold great potential for solar and wind energy, too.
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Absolute Age Dating

Some rock layers, or events in geologic time, arenīt assigned a specific age in years - rather, they are assigned a "relative" age. But other rocks, or other geologic events, actually can have an age assigned to them. Absolute age dating is the process whereby an age (in years) is assigned to a rock layer or event.
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Cubic Water

How much water do we have on Earth? Enough to form a cube that is 148 miles on each side!
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Soil Defined

"Soil" means different things to different people. Soil scientists use it to mean unconsolidated granular material that has enough organic matter in it to support plant growth. Engineers use it to mean earth material that can be bulldozed away, without having to use dynamite.

Geologists use the term either way.
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Waterfalls

Waterfalls are spectacular and awe-inspiring sights, but how do they form? Rock layers can differ in erodibility, being easier or harder for water to wear away. When harder materials overlie softer material, water eats away at the underlying rock, sometimes forming a waterfall.
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Desert Defined

When we think of deserts we typically imagine dry, hot, sandy places like Arizona, in the United States, or the Sahara, in Africa. Technically a desert is any regions which receives 25 cm (10 inches) of precipitation per year.
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Undisturbed Layers

If a sequence of rock layers (strata) does not seem to have been disturbed (that is, the units are still horizontal and havenīt been tipped or faulted) you can assume that the oldest layers are on the bottom, and the youngest layers are on the top.

Yeah, it sounds obvious to us now, but in the early days of geology, that was a pretty astute observation known as the Principle of Superposition.
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Volcanic Soil

Although volcanoes are often associated with destruction, there are positive effects. For example, volcanic eruptions produce a great deal of material which becomes very fertile soil.
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Crystals

A crystal is a substance whose atoms are arranged in a regular, repeating pattern. You can see an example of crystals by looking through a hand lens or magnifying glass at regular table salt (which is actually the mineral halite).

Window glass, on the other hand, is an example of a solid substance which isnīt made of crystals, even under a microscope.
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Creep

No, itīs not an unsavory character - "creep" is a slow downhill movement of the upper soil layers. Itīs creep that causes fences to drift out of line, gravestones to tip, and trees to slide downhill.
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Longshore Drift

The action of waves as they crash on shore is awesome to watch, but be aware! The same waves that are so inspiring are actively moving the beach - in the US, the beach moves south. Itīs a common hazard that beachfront property owners are all too familiar with.
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Meteorites

Where do meteorites come from? While they obviously come from many different places, both the Moon and the planet Mars have been identified as sources for meteorites that land here on earth. Less than 20 have been identified as coming from either site, though.
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What is a Plate, Exactly?

A plate is a segment of the lithosphere (the solid part of the earth, as opposed to the atmosphere or the hydrosphere). It includes the crust, which is the part we walk on, but also the upper part of the mantle, which is the layer of the planet that lies just below the crust.
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Hurricanes in the Atlantic

Planning a trip to the Atlantic? Worried about hurricane season? Hereīs a weather tip:

A "typical" storm season in the Atlantic will include ten named storms, six of which will become hurricanes. Two of the hurricanes will be "major" (does that mean there are "minor" hurricanes??).
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Ring of Fire

Looking for the Ring of Fire? Check out the roughly circular zone of earthquake- and volcano-prone regions that run from western South America up through the west coast of North America, out through the Aleutians and down the east coast of Asia.

While volcanoes certainly occur other places, the Ring of Fire marks the most significant concentration of them, as well as some of the largest earthquakes.
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Driest of the Dry

Think itīs dry where you live? Some regions of Peru and Chile have not received any rainfall for a decade or more!
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Galaxy Facts

There are about 100 billion stars in the Milky Way, which is the galaxy that includes our own solar system. The Milky-Way is a flat, pancake-shape galaxy that is slowly revolving through space.
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Desert Humans

Most of the worldīs population lives near the water, especially along coasts. But about 13% of us live in deserts.
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Caves

How do caves form? When groundwater moves through cracks and fissures in a carbonate rock (usually limestone) it dissolves it, bit by bit. Over time the crack enlarges to become an underwater cave. If the water table is lowered, or the land uplifted a bit, the underwater cave might be above water and accessible to us.
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Topographic Maps

Unlike highway maps or political maps, topographic maps show more than locations - they show relief (topography). So with a topo map you can not only find the location of a particular hill, you can see its shape, gauge its steepness, and determine its elevation.
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Rain Shadow Deserts

Some deserts form because they are close to mountains -these are known as "rain shadow deserts." Air masses have to rise to go over mountains - as the air masses rise, they cool. Because they are cooler, they canīt hold as much water, so it rains. Then the air, now dry, continues over the mountain to the other side. Dry air doesnīt bring rain, so a desert forms on the far side of the mountains.
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Lake Formation

Many of the lakes with which we are familiar today were formed as a result of glacial activity. In the United States, northern states can have an abundance of natural lakes because glaciers existed there in the past. Southern states tend to have more reservoirs, created by damming rivers, because glaciers did not extend that far south, and lakes were not created.
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New Madrid Earthquake

In the winter of 1811-1812 three of the most powerful earthquakes in US history occurred - and they werenīt even in California! Although the Richter Scale (which measures earthquake magnitude) wasnīt around then, the Dec. 16th New Madrid quakes in central Mississippi was felt in Boston, Detroit, and New Orleans - it was the sparse population in the area that avoided many deaths.
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