Research news on continenetal drift

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.