A better understanding of the ground beneath our feet will result from research by seismologists and Rapid—a group of computer scientists at the University of Edinburgh. The Earth's structure controls how earthquakes travel and the damage they can cause. A clear picture of this structure would be extremely valuable to earthquake planners, but it requires the analysis of huge amounts of data.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- Sea level has not been as high as the distinctive ridges that run down the length of Florida for millions of years.

Which would you rather eat-- cotton candy, a volcano, or broken glass?  Turns out they're the same thing.  Ivan Amato breaks this news in Volcanic ash and cotton candy share molecular characteristics with glass (a Washington Post science special).

A sinkhole in Saint-Jude, Quebec has just collapsed a house, killing a family of four inside, leading people to ask what they are, how they occur and obviously who is at risk.

Washington, D.C.—Tiny variations in the isotopic composition of silver in meteorites and Earth rocks are helping scientists put together a timetable of how our planet was assembled beginning 4.568 billion years ago. The new study, published in the journal Science, indicates that water and other key volatiles may have been present in at least some of Earth's original building blocks, rather than acquired later from comets, as some scientists have suggested.

New research by The University of Manchester and the Carnegie Institution of Washington is to make scientists rethink their understanding of how Earth formed.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Scientists have used quantum mechanics to reveal that the most common mineral on Earth, silica, is relatively uncommon deep within the planet.

The yearly General Assembly of the European Geological Union is taking place in Vienna, Austria and Dr. Olaf Eisen from the German Alfred Wegener Institute has presented results from an environmentally friendly measurement method that he and his colleagues used on an Antarctic ice-shelf for the first time in early 2010.