Earth’s continental crust has grown and been reshaped over more than four billion years through the interplay of mantle dynamics, magmatic differentiation and crustal recycling. In its infancy, a ...

The ground we stand on rests upon massive rock plates. However, there is no "sea of molten magma" spreading out beneath those ...

Continental margins record the transition from rigid continental lithosphere to oceanic plates and host a spectrum of tectonic processes that govern basin formation, crustal thinning and magmatic ...

The dance of the continents has been reshaping Earth for billions of years, creating the landscapes we walk on today. Scientists are unlocking secrets about how plate tectonics forged our modern world ...

Science has a reputation for being cautious, and often that caution is earned. Yet some of its biggest advances began as ...

As an undergrad at MIT in the 1950s, Lynn Sykes ’59, SM ’60, became interested in the theory of continental drift, which held that the world’s great landmasses had wandered across Earth over time. The ...

Continents and oceans have scientific definitions that underpin international law. The idea of dividing the world into geographical zones is ancient. Sovereignty and influence over natural resources ...

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 discovery that changes ...

Learn how a computer simulation demonstrates that tectonic activity may be less slow and steady than previously thought. Melting glaciers in North America 10,000 years ago may have given continental ...

V. 1. Wegener and the early debate -- v. 2. Paleomagnetism and confirmation of drift -- v. 3. Introduction of seafloor spreading -- v. 4. Evolution into plate tectonics "Resolution of the sixty year ...

Earth's surface is a turbulent place. Mountains rise, continents merge and split, and earthquakes shake the ground. All of these processes result from plate tectonics, the movement of enormous chunks ...