You've probably heard of fool's gold, and it might make you think of prospectors in old timey California seeking their fortunes. But there's another kind of fool's gold called chalcopyrite, and lucky for those that want to strike...

Small grains in the Murchison meteorite have been estimated to be 7 billion years old—much older than the Earth, and even the solar system.

The Giant's Causeway is a rock formation that is so otherworldly that it seems like it was made by supernatural beings. But these incredible hexagonal columns of rock aren't the result of giant masons. They formed through a quirk of...

Squeaks is back from his trip around the world! In this episode, he and Jessi discuss the final stop on his trip: Vatnajökull National Park in Iceland.

A new friend Savannah and Sam learn about different kinds of igneous rocks, which form after liquid magma or lava cools into solid rock.

After learning about igneous and sedimentary rocks, Savannah and Sam learn about the final main kind of rock: metamorphic rocks. And they review how each of these rocks can turn into another!

Jessi and Sam learn about sedimentary rocks and show how you can use vinegar to identify a piece of limestone.

The benefits of music education for children are well-documented. It can boost mental health, enhance creativity and improve cognitive functioning. A summer camp program in South Dakota and Minnesota aims to bring all that and more to...

Your smartphone, computer and electric car all depend on one thing — critical minerals buried deep underground. But there’s a catch: the mining industry has gotten dramatically worse at discovering new deposits just when we need them...

On this Crash Course in World Mythology, Mike Rugnetta is teaching you about floods and deluges, specifically in China. In Chinese myth, flood stories pretty much all revolve around a guy named Yu the Great, or Yu the Engineer. In the...

How did a relative of the red panda end up in North America? What can this tell us about how long ago – and how many times – North America was connected to Europe and Asia?

Pamukkale, Turkey's Cotton Palace, is home to some of the most beautiful hot springs in the world. Located in the Denizli Basin, it's not only unique, but can tell us a surprising amount about the history of the site.



Hosted...

What was the biggest volcanic eruption of all time? Was it a huge explosion like Mt. Tambora? Not even close. In this episode, SciShow takes on the biggest volcanic eruptions to ever happen.<b<br/>r/>

Hosted by: Savannah Geary (they/them)

If you were really into gift shops as a kid, you probably loved to look at all the shiny geodes. But those little geodes are nothing compared to the mother of all geodes, found is in Put In Bay, Ohio. So let's talk about how this...

Diamonds are cool, but they form really far below the Earth's crust, and the main way they get to the surface(ish) is through rock formations called kimberlites. And these kimberlites are really rare and really weird. So let's talk...

An asteroid nearly twice the size of the one that killed the dinosaurs left a record-setting crater in South Africa. If you look closely, you can still see it today, 2 billion years later. <b<br/>r/>

Hosted by: Jaida Elcock (She/her)

Of the 10 largest rough diamonds ever mined, 6 of them have come from the African nation of Botswana. Russia is the only country that produces more diamonds by volume, but the individual gems don't tend to be as large. So why is...

Technology has shaped our world, and in particular, semiconductor silicon chips are the magic ingredient that's sparked a revolution. And all of the world's flashiest tech can only exist at all because of one single mine. From your...

In the mid-1990s, a meteorite with the unmemorable name ALH84001 became the most famous rock in the world. Because one team of scientists proposed that it had the evidence of real, if microscopic, Martians.



Hosted by: Reid...

China's Zhangye Danxia National Geopark is home to strikingly beautiful rainbow mountains -- yes, what you're seeing is real! But the secret to this amazing sight might be something incredibly humble: dirt.



Hosted by: Stefan...

Two billion years ago, an igneous rock in northern South Africa formed. Not long after, some bacteria crawled into cracks in that rock, and got trapped inside when the cracks got plugged up by a bunch of clay. But that bacterial colony...

Arrokoth, an asteroid in the Kuiper Belt, is the most distant object ever explored by the New Horizons spacecraft. And it's covered in sugar. Here's why that might be important for understanding the nature of life...

In which Mike Rugnetta teaches you about Ma'ui, prominent hero of many cultures in Oceania, aka the Pacific Island nations. Ma'ui is just the kind of hero we're interested in here at Crash Course. He's a culture hero, he's a an...

The world is heading toward a massive copper shortage that could derail the clean energy transition, says mining expert Jeff More. He shows how advanced sensing technology could get us back on the right track, drastically cutting down on...