Researchers describe zircons from the Andes mountains of Patagonia. Although the zircons formed when tectonic plates were colliding, they have a chemical signature associated with when the plates were ...

Earth’s crust looks solid from the surface, but it is broken into a shifting mosaic of slabs that slowly rearrange oceans and continents. Understanding how those tectonic plates first formed is one of ...

The Andes Mountains are much taller than plate tectonic theories predict they should be, a fact that has puzzled geologists for decades. Mountain-building models tend to focus on the deep-seated ...

Based on a series of models considering how the continents were assembled over time, a team of researchers at the University of Adelaide created an updated map of Earth's tectonic plates. The map will ...

In deep Earth, rocks take up and release water all the time, and the effects can be wide reaching. Dehydration can cause rocks to crack and trigger earthquakes, and over geologic timescales, this ...

Craig Robert Martin receives funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Breathing quickly in the thin mountain air, my colleagues and I set down our equipment. We’re at the base of a jagged ...

Salameh, E. and Tarawneh, A. (2026) Tectonic Structures and Their Consequential Nontectonic Deformations —The Case of the ...

The Aravalli Range, which goes over 700 km from Gujarat to Delhi via Rajasthan and Haryana, is one of the earth's oldest mountain systems that date back to the Proterozoic Eon more than 2 billion ...

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Massive tectonic collisions in the tropics may have caused Earth's last three great ice ages.

The tectonic plates are among the most powerful forces on Earth, exerting tremendous influence over every single life that unfolds on this planet. They are both creators and destroyers, capable of ...