Plate tectonics is a highly complex phenomenon that underpins almost every geological process and our understanding of Earth. Increasingly sophisticated computers and statistical approaches, including ...

Our planet has an outer layer made up of several plates, which move relative to one another. While we may take this knowledge for granted, this theory of plate tectonics was only formulated in the ...

Scientists analyzing seismic data from southern Tibet discovered that the Indian tectonic plate is fragmenting as it subducts beneath the Eurasian plate, reshaping our understanding of the forces ...

The Earth may eventually have a new ocean. Tectonic plate movement under a section of Northern Africa could pull the area that is currently Ethiopia, Djibouti and Eritrea away from the rest of the ...

For the first time in history, scientists have observed the rupture of a tectonic plate in a subduction zone in real time. The study, published in the scientific journal Science Advances, was ...

Subduction zones, where one tectonic plate dives underneath another, drive the world's most devastating earthquakes and tsunamis. How do these danger zones come to be? A study in Geology presents ...

Researchers in China and Australia have created an animation that details Earth's tectonic movements over the past 1.8 billion years. In just over a minute, the video offers a mesmerizing look at how ...

For millions of years, Earth’s moving plates have sculpted continents, carved oceans, and built massive mountain ranges. Yet some of these giant structures vanished deep into the mantle, hidden from ...

Why it's incredible: The mountains' folded rocks form stunning rainbow patterns. As the name suggests, China's Rainbow Mountains are multicolored formations in the northwest of the country. The ...