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A graphic showing the convective heat cycle (red arrows) that drives plate tectonic motion (black arrows) on Earth. Heat flows toward subduction zones through the uppermost mantle layer, the asthenosphere. A computer model from Rice University finds that the asthenosphere can locally drag plates along with it rather than acting exclusively as a brake on plate movements as had been widely believed. (Image courtesy of Surachit/Wikimedia Commons)

Crustal brines at an oceanic transform fault

Creative destruction: a thinner ocean plate sides under a continental plate, melting and recycling the ocean crust into the Earth’s interior and birthing volcanoes in this illustration of subduction, a consequence of modern plate tectonics. A new study reports evidence of a transition in multiple locations around the world, 3.8-3.6 billion years ago, from stable “protocrust” to pressures and processes that look a lot like modern subduction, suggesting a time when plates first got moving. Credit: Nikolas Midttun, CC-BY

Sink or Swim: The fate of sinking tectonic plates depends on...

Early Earth was bombarded by meteors which played a crucial role in disrupting and recycling Earth’s first crust.

Early Earth’s first crust composition discovery rewrites geological timeline

Artistic view of Earth’s interior during mantle solidification in the first hundreds of millions of years of Earth’s history. Gravitational segregation of dense, iron-rich magma (in orange) likely formed a basal magma ocean atop the core, that can explain the present-day structure of the lower mantle.

Earliest days of Earth’s formation

Schematic representation of the process of subduction of tectonic plates and of a mantle plume rising from an LLSVP. In the latter, the mineral grains are larger than those in the subducted plates.

Earth’s mantle reveals hidden treasures

The Zagros Mountains and sediments that have accumulated over millions of years along the depression at the base of the mountains. Photo: Renas Koshnaw

Oceanic plate between Arabian and Eurasian continental plates is breaking away

The Velodrome Recumbent Fold

The Velodrome Recumbent Fold

Monazite crystals from samples associate professor Sean Regan gathered in the Coast Mountains near Juneau. Images courtesy of Sean Regan

Denali Fault tore apart ancient joining of two landmasses

Gold nugget found in the field. Credit: University of Adelaide

Unlocking the journey of gold through magmatic fluids

Himalaya

A river is pushing up Mount Everest’s peak

A map of the East Pacific Rise region where the discovery of an ancient seafloor was made. Credit: Jingchuan Wang.

Ancient sunken seafloor reveals earth’s deep secrets

Effect of Al + H incorporation on the sound velocities of superhydrous phase B Schematic representation of the incorporation of aluminum together with water (as Al + H) in the crystal structure of superhydrous phase B. credit : Geodynamics Research Center, Ehime University

Water delivered to the mantle by aluminum enriched hydrated slabs?

Satellite image of the Great Escarpment in southern Africa from the Sentinel Hub Earth Observation Browser. Taken using the Sentinel-2 L1C dataset, in May 2020. Credit: Prof Tom Gernon, University of Southampton.

Scientists uncover hidden forces causing continents to rise

Continental plates around Greenland.

New model refutes leading theory on how Earth’s continents formed

A schematic cross section of the Cascadia Subduction Zone shows the ocean floor plate (light grey) moving under the North American continental plate, along with other features. (Courtesy USGS)

Cascadia Subduction Zone, one of Earth’s top hazards, comes into sharper...

These ancient metamorphic rocks called gneisses, found on the Arctic Coast, represent the roots of the continents now exposed at the surface. The scientists said sedimentary rocks interlayered in these types of rocks would provide a heat engine for stabilizing the continents. Credit: Jesse Reimink. All Rights Reserved.

Rock steady: Study reveals new mechanism to explain how continents stabilized

The opening and closing of the Rocas Verdes Basin, a back-arc basin in Patagonia, as described by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin in a study published in Geology. Panels B and C illustrate the basin-closure process, in which an underlying portion of the oceanic crust is thrust into a magma chamber (B) and breaks off ahead of continental crust (C). The last two panels (C and D) show the oceanic plate and continental plate colliding together – squeezing the basin together into the Andes Mountains of Patagonia that we see today. Credit: Fernando Rey et al

New step in tectonic squeeze that turns seafloor into mountains

The zircon crystals we found in river sand and rocks from Finland have signatures that point towards them being much older than anything ever found in Scandinavia, while matching the age of Greenlandic rock samples. Photo: Andreas Petersson.

New geological study: Scandinavia was born in Greenland

Maps showing the evolution of the Gibraltar subduction zone from 30 million years ago to 50 million years into the future. From Duarte et al., 2024.

Early-stage subduction invasion

A cut slice of altered mantle rock. (Photo by: Solvin Zankl)

Researchers studying ocean transform faults, describe a previously unknown part of...

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