Geology
What the ground is made of and how it moves. Plate tectonics and the mantle, the rock cycle, volcanoes and magma chambers, aquifers and groundwater, the deepest boreholes ever drilled, and the instruments that read a planet nobody can see into.
Part of Underground
37 moments in this segment.
- - Plate II- Topaz, Garnet, Vesuvian, Idocrase, Chrysolite, Olivine, Pistacite, Epidote, Turq. Figures 1-7. The Topaz. 1. Topaz 2. The same [Topaz] 3. Dark Yellow Topaz 4. Sea-green Topaz or Aquamarine 5. Light Yellow Topaz 6. Dark Yellow Topaz 7. The same [Dark Yellow Topaz] Figures 8-19. The. Period photograph.
- - Plate XII- Sulphur, Honey-Stone, Graphite, Coal, Lignite - - f8bf61b7c988972178384f3d01ded. Figures 1-3. Sulphur. 1. Native Sulphur 2. The same [Native Sulphur] 3. The same [Native Sulphur] Figure 4. Honey-Stone. 4. Honey-Stone or Mellite Figures 5-7. Graphite. 5. Graphite Plumbago 6. Clear. Period photograph.
- - The Quarterly journal of the Geological Society of London. W. TOPLET OK AREAS OF APPARENT UPHEAVAL. 189 these rocks would he affected by this amount, besides that resulting from the thinning of the higher Secondary rocks themselves. We see, then, that in esti. Period photograph.
- - Project Mohole: Drilling for the Mantle. Period film documenting Project Mohole, the American attempt to drill through the ocean crust to the Mohorovicic discontinuity as an Earth-science answer to the Space Race.
- - Kiger Gorge in the Steens Mountain country. Description/Notes: Kiger Gorge is the only example of glaciation in southeastern Oregon as seen from Rim Rock, far above the floor of the U-shaped valley. Photo is number 3819. Original Collection: Ed.
- - Faces of Earth: Shaping the Planet. Episode two of the American Geosciences Institute series, going inside tectonic events as earthquakes and volcanoes remake the surface.
- - Yes, Yellowstone Is a Volcano. The Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory explains how the volcanic system beneath the park is known and monitored.
- - What Is Groundwater?. KQED's animated primer on where groundwater sits underground, where it comes from and where it goes.
- - What the Deepest Hole in the World Taught Us. SciShow explains who drilled the Kola borehole, why, and what the rock cores actually revealed about the crust.
- - Robert Christiansen on Half a Century of Yellowstone Geology. The USGS emeritus geologist whose mapping revealed the scale of the Yellowstone caldera describes his career from the 1960s onward.
- - Hydrogeology of Springs and Aquifers. A Springs Academy class on how water moves through rock, and how aquifers feed springs at the surface.
- - Ore Deposits 101: How Mineral Deposits Form. Opening lecture of a course on economic geology, covering how ore bodies are concentrated in the crust.
- - The High Plains Aquifer. A hydrogeologist from the Oklahoma Geological Survey on changes in the groundwater resource beneath the High Plains.
- - Fifteen Years of GRACE Tracking Freshwater. NASA on the gravity-sensing satellite mission that measured groundwater loss from aquifers worldwide between 2002 and 2016.
- - Volcano Plumbing Systems. University of Iceland course module on the network of conduits and reservoirs that feed magma to the surface.
- - Why on Earth Would You Drill Into a Magma Chamber?. A public lecture on the case for drilling directly into magma, a place humans have never reached despite going to the Moon.
- - What's Actually Inside the Earth's Core?. How geophysics established the composition and state of the core without anyone ever reaching through the crust.
- - Kola Superdeep Borehole: The Deepest Hole Ever Made. A long-form documentary account of the Kola project from its Cold War origins to its abandonment in the 1990s.
- - DRILL HOLE IN RIB, MULTI FRAC - - 78bb10dd8e3761507a1d7170a3b68d5e. Original Agency Description: A800484 U12G MULTI FRAC DRILL HOLE IN RIB FINLEY (Project Engineer) APR 22 80 EG&G/NTS PHOTO LAB Publication Date: 4/22/1980 Keywords: CABLES; DRILL HOLE IN RIB; DRILL HOL.
- - How Do You Steer a Drill Below the Earth?. Practical Engineering on horizontal directional drilling and the mechanics of guiding a bit through rock underground.
- - The Kola Well, Explained in 3D. A 3D-animated breakdown of the science of the Kola Superdeep Borehole, its 12,226 m depth and the cost of reaching it.
- - The Largest Magma Body on the Planet. On the Altiplano-Puna Magma Body, a roughly 500,000 cubic kilometre reservoir of partially molten rock beneath the central Andes.
- - Drilling Into an Active Volcano at Krafla. BBC News on the Icelandic project preparing to drill into Krafla's magma to learn how to forecast eruptions.
- - Geothermal Energy Is Changing. Real Engineering on Quaise Energy's millimetre-wave drilling, an attempt to reach supercritical geothermal resource depths that conventional bits cannot.
- - Jay Famiglietti on GRACE and the Global Water Crisis. The former NASA JPL water scientist on how gravity satellites revealed the scale of groundwater depletion.
- - The Big Business of Drilling Deep Into the Earth. Bloomberg on next-generation geothermal, where fracking technology is being repurposed to open sites previously off-limits.
- - Yellowstone's Magma Chamber: A Hot Mess. The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory's monthly update on what is actually known about the magma system heating the park's hydrothermal features.
- - Critical Minerals and Rare Earth Elements. Geologist Terry Panhorst on where critical minerals form in the crust and why their supply chains matter.
- - Landsat Takes Yellowstone's Temperature. USGS on using satellite thermal remote sensing to track more than 10,000 thermal features fed from below.
- - Geothermal Energy's Massive Leap Forward. The Economist's energy editor on whether new geothermal drilling could scale past nuclear power.
- - Top Five Yellowstone Geologic Stories of 2025. The observatory's year in review, covering hydrothermal activity, monitoring results and the rumours it had to correct.
- - A Hidden Magma Plumbing System on Mars. The Geological Society of America covers a new study finding buried magmatic plumbing on Mars, a comparison point for reading Earth's own.
- - Why Drilling to the Mantle Is Almost Impossible. Business Insider on why the Kola borehole barely scratched the crust, and on the technologies being proposed to go deeper.
- - African Volcanic Plumbing Systems. An IAVCEI commission webinar with researchers presenting current work on the subsurface magma systems beneath African volcanoes.
- - A Hydrothermal Explosion Caught on New Monitoring Gear. On 13 June 2026 Yellowstone's newest geophysical monitoring sites recorded a small hydrothermal explosion at Biscuit Basin.
- - Drilling Into the Mantle: The Kola Superdeep Hole. Engineering account of the Soviet Kola SG-3 borehole, which reached 12,262 m between 1970 and 1992. Covers the drilling technology and why the rock behaved unexpectedly at depth.
- - Is Yellowstone's North Caldera Rim Rising?. USGS on decades of measured uplift and subsidence on the caldera's north rim, and a new period of uplift that began last year.