Continental drift is the geophysical phenomenon describing the gradual horizontal movement of Earth’s continental lithospheric plates relative to one another over geological time. Driven primarily by mantle convection, slab pull, and ridge push forces, this process results in the reconfiguration of ocean basins and continents, influencing orogenesis, basin formation, and large-scale patterns of volcanism and seismicity. Continental drift operates on timescales of millions of years, with typical plate velocities of a few centimeters per year, and is quantitatively constrained by paleomagnetic data, marine magnetic anomalies, hotspot tracks, GPS geodesy, and stratigraphic and fossil correlation across now-separated continental margins.
About 600 million years ago, the continents wandered Earth, yet to settle into their current positions. Their locations during the Ediacaran (as this time is called) have been tough for scientists to pin down. Earth's magnetic ...
Earth Sciences
May 5, 2026
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An international team of Earth scientists led by Utrecht professor Douwe van Hinsbergen has developed an online tool that allows you to see, for any given location on Earth, what latitude it occupied in the distant past, ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 29, 2026
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Scientists have discovered a Jurassic tectonic plate boundary that could help to predict what the planet might look like millions of years into the future. Dr. Jordan Phethean, Senior Lecturer in Earth Sciences at the University ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 23, 2026
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Recent seismic imaging off Vancouver Island has revealed something extraordinary: a tear in the subducting oceanic plate beneath the Cascadia Subduction Zone. The finding briefly raised the public's hopes that Cascadia might ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 10, 2026
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The history of Earth is written on the great tablets of tectonic plates. The motions of plates shaped land masses, formed oceans, and created the varied climates and habitats that set the stage for evolution and the diversity ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 19, 2026
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When the supercontinent Pangea began to fragment around 200 million years ago during the Early Jurassic, it reshaped the face of the planet. Vast new oceans opened, continents drifted apart and the familiar geography of today ...
Our planet has experienced dramatic climate shifts throughout its history, oscillating between freezing "icehouse" periods and warm "greenhouse" states.
Earth Sciences
Jan 20, 2026
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Magnetic data collected in the late 1960s has been brought back to life by a research team including a Keele scientist, who have used it to learn more about how the continent of Africa is stretching and splitting apart.
Earth Sciences
Nov 20, 2025
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The tectonic plates under Africa and Asia are slowly drifting apart, as the Gulf of Suez that separates these two land masses continues to widen at a rate of about 0.26–0.55 millimeters per year.
A study led by researchers from the University of Sydney and the University of Adelaide has revealed how the breakup of an ancient supercontinent 1.5 billion years ago transformed Earth's surface environments, paving the ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 28, 2025
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