The Mega Tsunami That Smashed Hawaii

Hidden high above sea level on the cliffs of Molokaʻi and the slopes of Lānaʻi is evidence of one of the largest waves Earth has ever produced. Long before humans reached Hawaiʻi, a catastrophic volcanic island collapse triggered a prehistoric mega tsunami that sent ocean water hundreds of metres inland. Coral fragments, marine fossils, and massive boulder deposits found far above any modern shoreline reveal a disaster far more powerful than earthquake tsunamis recorded in human history. This article explores the geological evidence, the source of the wave, how high it reached, when it occurred, and whether a Hawaiian mega tsunami of this scale could ever happen again.

One of Earth's Youngest Impact Craters: The Henbury Craters

Around 5,000 years ago, a meteorite struck central Australia, carving the Henbury crater field into ancient Proterozoic rock south of Alice Springs. This rare and remarkably young meteorite impact site preserves multiple craters formed when an iron meteorite fragmented before hitting the ground within human history. The Henbury craters offer one of the clearest examples on Earth of a recent asteroid impact, combining geological evidence, preserved meteorite fragments, and Indigenous oral traditions that describe fire falling from the sky. Today, Henbury stands as one of the youngest confirmed meteorite impact sites on the planet and a powerful reminder that Earth remains vulnerable to objects from space.

Australia’s Most Overlooked Geological Oddity: Jarnem Keep

Hidden in the far north of Australia is one of the continent’s most overlooked geological oddities. Near Jarnem in the Northern Territory, a field of sandstone pinnacles and dome-shaped rock formations rises from the landscape, forming what looks like a ruined stone city carved by design. These formations are not man-made and are not related to Australia’s famous limestone Pinnacles or the Bungle Bungles, despite their visual similarity.

Formed from Devonian to Early Carboniferous sandstones more than 300 million years ago, the Jarnem Keep landscape represents the remains of an ancient sandstone surface that once stretched across northern Australia. Over millions of years, deep chemical weathering weakened the rock before erosion stripped away vast volumes of stone, leaving behind isolated towers, ridges and domes. This landscape is defined by erosion and loss rather than construction, making it one of Australia’s most unusual geological environments.

Today, Jarnem Keep stands as a rare example of a landform shaped by subtraction, where the spaces between the pinnacles tell as much of the geological story as the rocks themselves. It is a hidden geological landmark that reveals how climate, erosion and time can quietly erase entire landscapes while leaving behind only their strongest remnants.

The Strangest Volcanic Rock in Victoria: Icelandite

One small hill in central Victoria erupted something no other location in the state ever has—a rare volcanic rock known as icelandite. In a region dominated by basaltic lava flows, this unique eruption broke the rules of Victorian volcanism and left behind a geological mystery. Formed between 8.3 and 5 million years ago, the Spring Hill icelandite tells a story of deep mantle anomalies, crustal interaction, and volcanic chemistry found nowhere else in Australia. This blog dives into what makes this eruption so special, how it happened, and why the rock it produced is the rarest of its kind in Victoria.

The Lost Gold Reef in The Otways: Wangerrip

Hidden deep within southern Australia lies one of the most unusual gold discoveries ever recorded. Known as the Wangerrip gold reef, this lost deposit appears on official geological maps as a major occurrence, yet it has no recorded production, no defined ore body, and no confirmed modern location. Discovered briefly in the late nineteenth century and then lost to time, the Wangerrip Reef stands as a geological anomaly that challenges everything we think we know about how and where gold forms in Australia. Hosted in rocks hundreds of millions of years younger than Victoria’s famous goldfields, this rare gold vein formed through a completely different tectonic process during the breakup of Gondwana, making it one of the strangest and rarest gold occurrences in the state.

Victoria's Hidden Grand Canyon: The Bass Canyon

Hidden beneath the calm surface of Bass Strait lies one of Australia’s most extraordinary geological features: the Bass Canyon, a massive underwater system stretching more than 160 kilometres and plunging over 3000 metres deep just off the Victorian coastline. This blog post uncovers the canyon’s incredible formation story, from cool-water carbonate sediments and ancient mass-wasting events to the powerful Bass Cascade, a cold underwater density current that helped carve this enormous chasm into the continental slope. Explore the science, geology and deep-time history behind Victoria’s hidden Grand Canyon and discover why this submerged giant is one of the country’s most awe-inspiring yet overlooked natural wonders.

The Forgotten Beach Gold Rush in New South Wales

Australia is known for its legendary goldfields, but few people realise New South Wales once hosted a genuine beach gold rush. Hidden behind the dunes near Evans Head, a fossilised ancient shoreline produced thousands of ounces of ultra-fine gold during the 1890s. This rare coastal placer formed when heavy minerals and gold from the New England highlands were reworked by shifting sea levels and storm-driven waves into a narrow, cemented strandline now buried beneath metres of sand. Forgotten for more than a century, this lost auriferous beach reveals one of the most unusual geological and mining stories in Australian history.

The Massive Australian Cave System You Never Hear About

Hidden beneath the remote landscapes of the Northern Territory lies Bullita Cave, Australia’s longest and least-known cave system. This enormous 123-kilometre underground labyrinth stretches through ancient Proterozoic dolostone in the Judbarra and Gregory Karst region. Its maze-like passages, shallow depth and astonishing density make it one of the most unusual cave networks on Earth. Bullita formed through the combined power of monsoonal flooding, rapid vertical infiltration and the erosion of a critical shale layer, producing a sprawling subterranean world that most people have never even heard of. This article explores the geology, hydrology and evolutionary history of Australia’s largest cave system and reveals why this hidden underworld is unlike anything else in the country.

The Only Place on Earth You Can Find This Rock

Hidden in the remote Kennedy Range region of Western Australia lies one of Earth’s rarest gemstone materials: Mookaite. This striking, multicoloured silicified radiolarite formed on the floor of an ancient Cretaceous sea and occurs only in a tiny area near Mooka Creek. In this article, we explore how microscopic marine fossils were transformed into one of Australia’s most distinctive gemstones, why it formed in only one locality, and what makes Mookaite a geological outlier unlike anything found anywhere else on the planet.

World Shocked As “Extinct” Volcano Reawakens: Hayli Gubbi

A volcano in Ethiopia has erupted for the first time in twelve thousand years, sending shockwaves through the scientific community and drawing global attention to one of the most active tectonic regions on Earth. This rare eruption of Hayli Gubbi in the Afar Depression reveals the immense geological forces tearing Africa apart and offers a dramatic glimpse into the formation of a future ocean basin. Explore how a supposedly extinct volcano reawakened, why it erupted so violently and what this event means for the East African Rift System.

Everything We Knew About The Giant's Causeway Was WRONG

For decades, the Giant’s Causeway was explained as a simple case of lava cooling in a river-carved valley — but new geological evidence rewrites that story entirely. Beneath the iconic basalt columns lies a hidden record of magma chamber collapse, rapid subsidence, and a volcanic event far more dramatic than the traditional explanation ever suggested. This article breaks down the new science behind the Causeway’s formation, the clues geologists uncovered in the laterite layer, and why everything we thought we knew about this landscape has now changed.

One of The Strangest Places on Earth: The Chocolate Hills in The Philippines

The Chocolate Hills of Bohol are one of the strangest and most visually striking geological landscapes on Earth. Beneath their calm, symmetrical beauty lies the story of an ancient coral reef uplifted from the sea and sculpted into nearly two thousand perfect domes by millions of years of tropical rainfall, chemical weathering and karstification. This blog post explores the real science behind the Chocolate Hills, their Pliocene limestone origins, their hidden cave systems and underground rivers, and the delicate balance that keeps this rare tropical karst environment alive.