This study is led by Prof. Zhong-Hai Li (University of Chinese Academy of Sciences). The present solid Earth is actually active, with new plates generating in the mid-ocean ridges and some old plates ...

We finally know where two giant blobs in Earth's middle layer came from — and they're a mismatched pair. These strange regions in Earth's mantle, known as "large low velocity provinces" (LLVPs), are ...

Our planet's lithosphere is broken into several tectonic plates. Their configuration is ever-shifting, as supercontinents are assembled and broken up, and oceans form, grow, and then start to close in ...

Oceanic plates take up a lot of water when submerged into the Earths' interior at continental margins. This water plays a central role in plate boundary volcanism. Scientists have, for the first time, ...

The initiation of plate subduction on Earth may occur before 3 billion years ago or even Hadean. Subduction is the core process of plate tectonics, which gradually lead to the co-evolution of ...

Several billion-year-old rocks tell the story of the planet’s transition from alien landscape to one of continents, oceans, and ultimately life A new study from scientists at Scripps Institution of ...

An enormous area of the Earth’s crust has torn and slumped, dropping about 5 kilometers (3 miles). We’ve only just noticed because this is happening beneath the Pacific Ocean, but what sounds alarming ...

Scientists have discovered a crack in the Earth's crust that threatens to pull North America and Europe closer together and cause the Atlantic Ocean to vanish in about 220 million years. Researchers ...