The soil under these rocks retains more moisture than exposed desert soil, said Jenna Ekwealor, while enough light leaks through the milky quartz to allow the tiny mosses to remain green with ...

That plant is moss. Yes, moss. The fuzzy green stuff famed for its love of waterfalls, ... The scientists found that the basement of quartz rocks was still damp two weeks after a May rainfall.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Microscopic Mojave Desert plants growing on the underside of translucent quartz pebbles can endure both chilly and near-boiling temperatures, scavenge nitrogen from the air, and ...

A unique moss species thrives underneath translucent quartz rocks in the hot, dry Mojave Desert while its neighbors shrivel. UC Berkeley / Kirsten Fischer ...

A study suggests a collection of quartzite cobbles found in Wyoming, but originally coming from Wisconsin, made the 600-mile journey in the belly of a dinosaur.

The quartzite rock was discovered in Mount Barren in southwestern Australia, and the tracks embedded in it appear to have been made by crustaceans that burrow into the sand.

Chickies Rock is a huge outcropping of quartzite rock that towers 100 feet above the Susquehanna River. The vista offers impressive views of York County, Marietta and farmlands in northwestern ...