About 56 million years ago, Europe and North America began pulling apart to form what became the ever-expanding North Atlantic Ocean. Vast amounts of molten rock from Earth's mantle reached the ocean ...

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Ancient plate tectonics in the Archean period differs from modern plate tectonics in the Phanerozoic period because of the higher mantle temperatures inside the early Earth, the thicker basaltic crust ...

The summit pyramid of Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth, is built from the remains of creatures that lived on an ancient seafloor roughly 470 million years ago. Limestone near the peak ...

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Scientists discovered plate anomalies in Earth's mantle using seismic wave analysis. These mysterious structures challenge tectonic theories.

It turns out that continental breakups are just as messy as human ones, with the events leaving fragments scattered far from home ...

Earth’s crust may have gone on the move roughly 3.8 billion years ago. “Earth is actually quite distinct to other planets, in that it has plate tectonics,” says study coauthor Nadja Drabon, a ...

New research reveals the source of this carbon – and the driving forces behind it – are far more complex than previously ...

Plate tectonics is the theory that Earth's outer layer is made up of plates, which have moved throughout Earth's history. The theory explains the how and why behind mountains, volcanoes, and ...

We often affiliate plate tectonics with earthquakes, as we are all taught in school that the shifting of plates leads to big shakes. But plate tectonics serve a far more important job to the planet ...

Researchers have studied structures in the lunar maria that indicate earthquakes. These could also affect manned missions.