World's tectonic plate movement mapped
A group of geophysicists is testing the hypothesis that the rate of "supercontinent assembly"—or tectonic plate movement—changes over time.
A group of geophysicists is testing the hypothesis that the rate of "supercontinent assembly"—or tectonic plate movement—changes over time.
Earth Sciences
Aug 25, 2014
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As life on Earth rapidly expanded a little over 500 million years ago during the Cambrian explosion, Earth had tectonic plates slowly crashing into each other, building mountains and starting a series of unfortunate events ...
Earth Sciences
May 31, 2024
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An enduring question in geology is when Earth's tectonic plates began pushing and pulling in a process that helped the planet evolve and shaped its continents into the ones that exist today. Some researchers theorize it happened ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 22, 2020
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A team of oceanographers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, working with a colleague from Chungnam National University and another from the University of Hawaii, has mapped 19,000 previously unknown undersea volcanoes ...
Victor Camp has spent a lifetime studying volcanic eruptions all over the world, starting in Saudi Arabia, then Iran, and eventually the Pacific Northwest. The geology lecturer finds mantle plumes that feed the largest of ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 6, 2019
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The Earth's magnetic field has reversed many times at an irregular rate throughout its history. Long periods without reversal have been interspersed with eras of frequent reversals. What is the reason for these reversals ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 24, 2011
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A team of geoscientists from the University of Toronto is shedding new light on the century-old model of plate tectonics, which suggests the plates covering the ocean floors are rigid as they move across the Earth's mantle.
Earth Sciences
Feb 6, 2024
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Just like honey slowly dripping from a spoon, parts of the rocky outermost layer of Earth's shell are continuously sinking into the more fluid layer of the planet's mantle over the course of millions of years. Known as lithospheric ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 19, 2022
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In a study that gives new meaning to the term "rock bottom," seismic researchers have discovered the underside of a rocky slab of Earth's surface layer, or lithosphere, that has been pulled more than 400 miles beneath northeastern ...
Earth Sciences
Nov 16, 2020
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While changing the rotation rate/axis of a thrown baseball has long been a weapon in a pitcher's arsenal, some pitchers, like Washington Nationals star Stephen Strasburg, manipulate the baseball's wake to create unexpected ...
General Physics
Nov 24, 2019
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