Researchers at the French National Center of Scientific Research have become the first to ...
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 ...
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.
With unprecedented clarity, scientists have directly observed a subduction zone—the collision point where one tectonic plate dives beneath another—actively breaking apart. The discovery, reported in ...
In 1970, Soviet scientists began drilling into the ground on the Kola Peninsula in the far northwest of the country, hoping ...
The puzzle pieces of Earth’s rocky crust are slowly and steadily moving — a process known as plate tectonics. These dynamic movements helped to create the habitats and climate that fostered the ...
New research reveals that Earth’s continents owe their stability to searing heat deep in the planet’s crust. At more than 900°C, radioactive elements shifted upward, cooling and strengthening the ...
Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. David Bressan is a geologist who covers curiosities about Earth. The chemistry of crystals in some of Earth’s oldest rocks may ...
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 ...
Earth, our home planet, is a world unlike any other. The third planet from the sun, Earth is the only place in the known ...