One longstanding enigma in geology is how one tectonic plate can break Earth's rock-hard shell and begin diving under another in the process known as subduction. "We now know how subduction nucleated ...

The present solid Earth is actually active, with new plates generating in the mid-ocean ridges and some old plates sinking back into the interior through subduction zones. Subduction is thus a key ...

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 ...

SYDNEY: Ancient subduction zones played a key role in forming some of the world's richest deposits of copper, zinc and lead, offering a new framework for mineral exploration, a new study reveals.

Groundbreaking research has provided new insight into the tectonic plate shifts that create some of the Earth's largest earthquakes and tsunamis. Groundbreaking research has provided new insight into ...

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American The area of the Pacific Northwest I live in ...

Subduction initiation marks the birth of a convergent plate boundary, where one tectonic plate begins to descend beneath another into the mantle. This process underpins the global plate-tectonic cycle ...

Water may have been shaping Earth’s deep interior far earlier than many geologists thought. In rocks more than 3 billion years old from Western Australia, a research team found chemical signs that ...