This early rocky shell featured chemical signatures previously thought to occur only in continental crusts made by the process of subduction, in which one tectonic plate slides under another. But ...

Recent discoveries offer deeper insight into the movement of tectonic plates. New research has found that variations in rock ...

Seismic waves from earthquakes have always offered a window into Earth’s hidden interior. For decades, researchers believed ...

Plate tectonics is geology’s Theory of Everything. The realisation in the 1960s that Earth’s crust is made of fragments ...

Scientists believe that the motion of Earth's continents through plate tectonics has been largely steady over millions of years. New research, however, suggests this drift can speed up or slow down ...

New research suggests melting ice sheets are warming global temperatures which may speed up continental drift, creating ...

Continental clues: Modern continental rocks carry chemical signatures from the very start of our planet’s history, challenging current theories about plate tectonics. Researchers have made a new ...

Newly published research has revealed that compositional rock anomalies within oceanic plates caused by ancient tectonics influence the trajectory and speed of the plates as they plunge deep into ...

The colorful swirls and stripes that characterize China's Rainbow Mountains would have remained hidden without the epic tectonic collision that created the Himalayas.

Plate tectonics (from the Greek τέκτων; tektōn, meaning "builder" or "mason") describes the large scale motions of Earth's lithosphere. The theory encompasses the older concepts of ...

The Hadean protocrust formation and early plate tectonics challenged by new study, questioning geological assumptions.

This part of the planet plays a crucial role in shaping surface features like mountains and volcanoes, and it drives plate tectonics through slow-moving convection currents. Scientists have long ...