ARLINGTON, Va. — Earth Treks Crystal City prides itself as a rock climbing outlet for people living in a metropolitan area and the business in northern Virginia hopes its roots in rock climbing can ...

Diamonds may be the hardest of gemstones, but it’s zircons that last forever. So durable are these birthstones of December that they represent Earth’s oldest known material: Some zircons from ...

When a Mars rover accidentally crushed a small rock and exposed a flash of vivid yellow inside, it turned a routine drive ...

NASA announced this week that rocks made of pure sulfur have been discovered on the Red Planet. The yellow sulfur crystals in a pure form have never been seen before on Mars. Earlier findings have ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - To put it mildly, this is one gem of a gem. Scientists using two different age-determining techniques have shown that a tiny zircon crystal found on a sheep ranch in western ...

The oldest known Earth stuff that remains on the surface of our planet is a mineral that’s been called the “Time Lord” because it’s so incredibly good at keeping geologic time. The mineral is zircon, ...

Continent-size islands deep inside Earth's mantle could be more than a billion years old, a new study finds. Known as large low-seismic-velocity provinces (LLSVPs), these blobs are both hotter and ...

When construction was underway on the American Museum of Natural History's new (and now open) Gilder Center, a soaring and sculptural wing dedicated to science, learning, exhibitions, and immersive ...

It may be a cool, comfortable paradise nowadays, but Earth had a pretty hotheaded youth – some scientists speculate that for a while the surface was one big ocean of magma. Now, a team of researchers ...

While quartz has long been used in timepieces, new models by Chanel and Van Cleef & Arpels show it having a moment. By Joshua Hendren Decorative gems have adorned watches for centuries. But, beyond ...