geology

Human History Recorded In Mud

When you step into mud, it kind of slurps up between your toes. What if someone found your mud-slurping footprint 15,000 years from now?

Scientists have uncovered 15,000 year old fossil human footprints, with incredible, mud-slurping detail. What do they tell us about the people that lived there? 

Alaskan Glaciers Tell A Story Of Deep Time

Rock, once a seafloor of mud, sand, and pebbles, towers into the sky, only to erode away, becoming a new and different seafloor, layered like pages in a book.

Appalachian State University's Dr. Ellen Cowan reads these pages, most recently off the coast of Alaska. They tell the full story of geological changes on the continent, as written by glaciers over millions of years.

Make Lava, Not War

A sculptor and a geologist are melting hundreds of pounds of rock in a giant cauldron to create realistic lava flows. Cool! NPR reporter Adam Cole pays a visit to learn more about lava's allure.