geology - TodaysChronic

The Mystery of Iceland’s Non-Erupting Volcano

“Some have thoughts that the systems are linked at depth,” says Edward Marshall, a geochemist at the University of Iceland—either directly, with magma flowing between the two subterranean mazes, or …

In a Fierce Desert, Microbe ‘Crusts’ Show How Life Tamed the Land

by Shen Ridenbaugh

At first glance, the grit crust could seem like a routine example of what researchers call a biological soil crust, or “biocrust”—a community of coexisting bacteria, fungi, algae, and other …