When most of us think about what shaped our planet, we probably picture volcanoes, earthquakes, and huge continents slowly drifting apart (or back together again) over millions or billions of years.

Scientists captured Earth's crust splitting beneath the Indian Ocean, revealing how lava created new ocean floor in just 16 ...

Bathymetry of the seafloor around the Southeast Indian Rift where two tectonic plates abruptly opened a portal to the ...

Little is known about the nature and evolution of Earth's continental crust before a few billion years ago because cratons, or stable swaths of the lithosphere more than 2–3 billion years old, are ...

Earth is the only planet we know of with buoyant, silica-rich continents. But, despite decades of research, geologists still don’t agree on how they formed. “The continents started appearing around ...

The movement of tectonic plates shapes the rocky features of Earth's surface. Plates' convergence can form mountain ranges or ocean trenches, and their divergence can form oceanic ridges. But it's not ...

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 ...

Scientists have witnessed the birth of new oceanic crust for the first time, capturing a rare seafloor spreading event that offers fresh insights into Earth's tectonic processes.

Our planet was born around 4.5 billion years ago. To understand this mind-bendingly long history, we need to study rocks and the minerals they are made of. The oldest rocks in Australia, which are ...

Stable parts of the Earth's crust may not be as immovable as previously thought. While much of the crust is affected by plate tectonic activity, certain more stable portions have remained unchanged ...