News tagged with plate tectonics

Related topics: earth

Zircon crystals reveal onset of plate tectonics

(Phys.org) -- We're familiar with the theory that the Earth's crust is composed of tectonic plates that move, sometimes dramatically to create earthquakes and tsunamis - but until recently, nobody knew how ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created May 31, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New understanding of terrestrial formation has significant and far reaching future implications

The current theory of continental drift provides a good model for understanding terrestrial processes through history. However, while plate tectonics is able to successfully shed light on processes up to 3 billion years ago, ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jun 01, 2012 | popularity 3 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Landslides linked to plate tectonics create the steepest mountain terrain

Some of the steepest mountain slopes in the world got that way because of the interplay between terrain uplift associated with plate tectonics and powerful streams cutting into hillsides, leading to erosion ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created May 30, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (3) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Double quake highlights Italy's seismic perils

Two killer earthquakes that struck northeastern Italy in nine days have shed light on the brutal but complex seismic forces that grip the Italian peninsula, scientists say.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created May 29, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

When continents collide: A new twist to a 50 million-year-old tale

Fifty million years ago, India slammed into Eurasia, a collision that gave rise to the tallest landforms on the planet, the Himalaya Mountains and the Tibetan Plateau.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Feb 29, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (12) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Copper chains: Study reveals Earth's deep-seated hold on copper

Earth is clingy when it comes to copper. A new Rice University study this week in the journal Science finds that nature conspires at scales both large and small -- from the realms of tectonic plates down t ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Apr 05, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Earth's inner core is melting... and freezing

The inner core of the Earth is simultaneously melting and freezing due to circulation of heat in the overlying rocky mantle, according to new research from the University of Leeds, UC San Diego and the Indian ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created May 18, 2011 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (13) | comments 10 | with audio podcast

Scientists find odd twist in slow 'earthquakes': Tremor running backwards

Earthquake scientists trying to unravel the mysteries of an unfelt, weeks-long seismic phenomenon called episodic tremor and slip have discovered a strange twist. The tremor can suddenly reverse direction ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created May 22, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (9) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Scientists reveal Southern California's tectonic plates in detail

Rifting is one of the fundamental geological forces that have shaped our planet. Were it not for the stretching of continents and the oceans that filled those newly created basins, Earth would be a far different ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 06, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New force driving Earth's tectonic plates discovered

Bringing fresh insight into long-standing debates about how powerful geological forces shape the planet, from earthquake ruptures to mountain formations, scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jul 06, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (17) | comments 11 | with audio podcast

New explanation for Hawaiian hot spot

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists in the US have suggested that volcanic activity in Hawaii could be fed by a giant hot rock pool 1,000 kilometers west of the islands and in the Earth’s mantle, rather than ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created May 27, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (11) | comments 3 | with audio podcast report

Diamonds pinpoint start of colliding continents

Jewelers abhor diamond impurities, but they are a bonanza for scientists. Safely encased in the super-hard diamond, impurities are unaltered, ancient minerals that can tell the story of Earth's distant past. ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jul 21, 2011 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (5) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Researchers show how far South American cities moved in quake

The massive magnitude 8.8 earthquake that struck the west coast of Chile last month moved the entire city of Concepcion at least 10 feet to the west, and shifted other parts of South America as far apart as ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Mar 08, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (15) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Giant impact near India -- not Mexico -- may have doomed dinosaurs

A mysterious basin off the coast of India could be the largest, multi-ringed impact crater the world has ever seen. And if a new study is right, it may have been responsible for killing the dinosaurs off 65 ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 15, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (42) | comments 15

Mapping Venus: Extreme makeover or plate tectonics?

(PhysOrg.com) -- Venus and Earth have long been thought of as sister planets. Given its similar size and proximity to Earth in the inner Solar System, Venus might seem like a promising candidate for having ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 22, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (11) | comments 3 | with audio podcast