New study reveals advanced understanding of plate tectonics
A new study has advanced the understanding of plate tectonics by focusing on the basic principles and geological corollaries along active and fossil plate margins.
Very large impacts may have stimulated blasts of plate tectonics
A new study suggests that the Earth's evolution from a hot, primordial mush into a rocky planet continuously resurfaced by plate tectonics may be triggered by extraterrestrial impacts. By examining the implications of these processes, the researchers believe…
Research suggests major changes to geology textbooks
A new research of the Earth’s crust and upper-mantle suggests that ancient geologic events may have left deep ‘scars’ that can come to life to play a role in earthquakes, mountain formation, and other ongoing processes on our planet. This changes…
Collapse of Earth’s tectonic plates unravelled
Following the international expedition drilling into the Pacific ocean floor, the scientists have for the first time discovered what happens after one tectonic plate gets pushed under another, Australian National University reports. During the drilling expeditions,…
A new answer to a long standing question of how plate tectonics started on Earth
An international team of geologists have proposed a new answer to a long standing question how plate tectonics started on Earth in the first place. They were able to demonstrate how the first sinking of litospheric plates, which is a key process of plate tectonics,…
First microplate discovered in the Indian Ocean reveals the age of Himalayas
The first ancient oceanic microplate has been discovered in the Indian Ocean by a team of Australian and US scientists. The discovery helped in identifying the timeline in which the initial collision between India and Eurasia has taken place, an event which gave…
New research shows Chinese continental shelf of exotic origin collided with continental China 100 million years ago
Researchers from China and United Kingdom have introduced a new hypothesis about the tectonic evolution of the greater western Pacific since the Mesozoic era, which shows that the basement of the Chinese continental shelf is geologically unrelated to the continental lit
A cause for plate collision discovered
An international team of 30 scientists has traveled to the Philippine Sea to drill into the crust of the Izu–Bonin-Mariana (IBM) arc and discover a cause for the plate collision. The results of their research were published in Nature Geoscience Journal on August 2
Study reveals how dust inside faults may contribute to earthquakes
A new study looks at how powdery material inside faults may contribute to earthquakes. According to geologist Ze'ev Reches of the University of Oklahoma in Norman, US, the gradual buildup of stress in a fault as plates collide or slide past each other is
Previously unknown magma layer in Earth’s mantle offers new insights into tectonics
Scientists have debated for decades as to what forces allow the planet’s tectonic plates to slide across the Earth’s mantle. Now, researchers have found a layer of liquefied molten rock in Earth’s mantle, which could potentially be that cause of the tectonic