The model offers new insights into how the plate subducted under Japan breaks into segments by bending and thereby crushing olivine grains on its underside. (Graphic: Taras Gerya / ETH Zurich)

Crushed resistance: Tectonic plate sinking into a subduction zone

Despite ESA’s GOCE mission ending over seven years ago, scientists continue to use this remarkable satellite’s gravity data to delve deep and unearth secrets about our planet. Recent research shows how scientists have combined GOCE data with measurements taken at the surface to generate a new model of Earth’s crust and upper mantle. This is the first time such a model has been created this way – and it is shedding new light on the processes of plate tectonics. The new model produced in ESA’s 3D Earth study shows for the first time how dissimilar the sub-lithospheric mantle is beneath different oceans, and provides insight as to how the morphology and spreading rates of mid-oceanic ridges may be connected with the deep chemical and thermal structure. Credit: ESA/Planetary Visions)

Researchers recreate deep-Earth conditions to see how iron copes with extreme...

Boudins of amphibolite layers (metamorphosed basalts) that were stretched within quartz schists (Norway). Photo credits © Haakon Fossen.

Fate of sinking tectonic plates is revealed

The rising Earth from the perspective of the moon.

Radiocarbon is key to understanding Earth’s past

A view of the crater of Dotsero volcano, a monogenetic volcano that erupted in Colorado about 4,000 years ago. Credit: Greg Valentine

Let’s talk about the 1,800-plus ‘young’ volcanoes in the US Southwest

Brachiopod fossils from the Ordovician Period outcrop on Anticosti Island, Quebec, Canada. (Credit: André Desrochers, University of Ottawa)

Uncovering the secrets behind Earth’s first major mass extinction

Some of the world’s oldest rubies linked to early life

A closeup view of the Flyby Trike’s occipital condyle bone — nicknamed the “trailer hitch” — the ball on the back of the skull that connects to neck vertebrae.Rachel Ormiston/Burke Museum/University of Washington

Four dinosaurs discovered in Montana

Fig. 1. Cretapsara athanata Luque gen. et sp. nov., a modern-looking eubrachyuran crab in Burmese amber. (A to D) Holotype LYAM-9. (A) Whole amber sample with crab inclusion in ventral view. (B) Close-up of ventral carapace. (C) Whole amber sample with crab inclusion in dorsal view. (D) Close-up of dorsal carapace. White arrows in (B) and (D) indicate the detached left fifth leg or pereopod. Photos by L.X. Figure by J.L.

First dinosaur era crab fully preserved in amber discovered

Image: Artists impression of newly identified species Credit: Anthony Hutchings

Two new species of large predatory dinosaur discovered on Isle of...

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