Tag Archives: earths

Deep in an underground, World War Two-era vault, investment manager Louis O’Connor guards his firm’s most valuable assets. The treasure inside? Rare earth elements. “Make no mistake about it, there’s three and a half meter walls and doors and armed security,” says O’Connor, the CEO of Strategic Metals Invest, a firm that lets individual investors buy into stockpiles of rare …

Geologists have stumbled on what they call gigantic fortresses lying almost 1,800 miles below our feet in Earth’s mantle. New seismic evidence shows how these subterranean bulwarks are older and tougher than the cooler debris of dead ocean plates that surround them, turning a long‑running mystery into a concrete data story. Each fortress spans an area comparable to …

Ever been late because you misread a clock? Sometimes, the “clocks” geologists use to date events can also be misread. Unravelling Earth’s 4.5-billion-year history with rocks is tricky business. Case in point: the discovery of an ancient meteorite impact crater was recently reported in the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia. The original study, by a different group, made headlines …

For almost ten years, an aftershock linked to the May 30, 2015 magnitude 7.9 Bonin Islands earthquake was touted as the deepest tremor ever measured, reported at 467 miles beneath the Pacific. That label has now been stripped away by a fresh look at the data that places the aftershock, and our understanding of deep seismicity, on firmer ground. …

New research has uncovered a fascinating link between volcanic eruptions and mysterious structures deep within Earth’s interior, challenging long-standing assumptions about the planet’s lower mantle. These structures, known as “BLOBS,” may be the key to understanding some of the most catastrophic volcanic events in Earth’s history. Are Earth’s Deep Secrets Triggering Doomsday Eruptions? Volcanic eruptions can have devastating effects, ranging …

Some of the most familiar atoms in the air above our heads appear to vanish when scientists audit Earth’s interior. Geochemists have spent decades tracing nitrogen’s trail yet always come up billions of tons short. Earth’s rocky shell, the bulk silicate Earth (BSE), holds only one to five parts per million of nitrogen, a tally wildly below the cargo delivered …

When you try to come up with the Earth’s largest waterfall, there are a lot of factors to take into account. Some might break it down based on sheer size, the flow rate or volume of water coming through it, and more. But, if you ask the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the answer is clear: the Denmark Cataract. …

A dusty envelope misplaced in a government archive has rewritten a chapter of mineral history. That 1949 letter, discovered during a 2023 digitization project in Bavaria, pointed curators toward a shoebox of lemon‑yellow fragments that had sat unnoticed for decades.  Roland Eichhorn of the Bavarian State Office for the Environment (LfU) led the modern hunt that followed, and his team …

MP Materials, which runs the only American rare earths mine, announced a new $500 million agreement with tech giant Apple on Tuesday to produce more of the powerful magnets used in iPhones as well as other high-tech products like electric vehicles. This news comes on the heels of last week’s announcement that the U.S. Defense Department agreed to invest $400 …

Apple to Buy Rare Earths From Pentagon-Backed, US Producer MP  Bloomberg MP Materials stock rips 23% higher after $500 million Apple deal for rare earth magnets  CNBC America’s Biggest Rare-Earth Producer Makes a Play to End China’s Dominance – WSJ  The Wall Street Journal Apple expands U.S. supply chain with $500 million commitment to American rare earth magnets  Apple Apple backs Trump rare earth …