The world's largest ocean basin is also the oldest. A basin is "a depression, or dip, in the Earth's surface," according to National Geographic. The Pacific Ocean is the largest, deepest and oldest ...

An ancient piece of volcanic rock plucked from the central Pacific Ocean did something unexpected when a scientist hit it with ultraviolet light in a lab: It started glowing green. The discovery was ...

A 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck the Pacific Ocean approximately 45 miles west of Misawa, Japan, at around 11:15 p.m. local ...

A magnitude 7.6 earthquake centered in the Pacific Ocean some 45 miles west of Misawa, Japan, shook the northern part of the ...

Researchers analyzed radioisotopes in layers of fossilized volcanic ash. Decay of uranium to lead within tiny crystals enabled scientists to precisely pinpoint dates for certain events. They ...

When exposed to UV light, the sediment in this piece of volcanic rock phosphoresces, glowing green for several seconds. This brief “glow in the dark” effect reveals the sediment is made out of calcite ...

Rocks store information from long ago. For instance, their composition can reveal the environmental conditions during their formation. This makes them extremely important in climate research. This led ...

Researchers found that eroded lava rubble beneath the South Atlantic can trap enormous amounts of CO2 for tens of millions of ...

This story is part of the Grist series Unearthed: The Mining Issue, which examines the global race to extract critical minerals for the clean energy transition. It was produced by Grist and ...