Carbon released from Earth's spreading tectonic plates, not volcanoes, may have triggered major transitions between ancient ...

Scientists have traditionally focused on volcanic arcs as the main natural source of atmospheric carbon dioxide. These form ...

Seismic tremors reveal a shallow fragment of ancient tectonic plate beneath Northern California, helping explain damaging ...

Our planet has experienced dramatic climate shifts throughout its history, oscillating between freezing "icehouse" periods ...

A hidden chunk of an ancient tectonic plate is stuck to the Pacific Ocean floor and sliding under North America, complicating ...

The interiors of rocky planets and moons tend to be pretty hot compared with their surfaces. This heat, which can be caused by a number of sources — such as tidal stretching and compression, the ...

The two halves of the African continent are moving apart at a rate of a few millimeters each year, geologists have calculated ...

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 audience was stunned. Atwater was the first person to use the newly revealed secrets of the seafloor to explain a ...

Memorizing seven continents feels settled, like learning the alphabet. A new study argues the ground rules are less tidy.

Learn about the movement of tectonic plates off the coast of northern California, a process that could incite major ...

Scientists have taken a journey back in time to unlock the mysteries of Earth’s early history, using tiny mineral crystals called zircons to study plate tectonics billions of years ago. The research ...