On Earth, continents are likely necessary to support life. Continents "float" on top of the Earth's viscous mantle, and heat from the planet's core keeps the mantle from solidifying and locking the continents into place.
Astronomy
Sep 20, 2023
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Curtin University researchers studying diamond-rich rocks from Western Australia's Argyle volcano have identified the missing third key ingredient needed to bring valuable pink diamonds to the Earth's surface where they can ...
Earth Sciences
Sep 19, 2023
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The Earth's oldest surface layer forming continents, termed its crust, is approximately 4 billion years old and is comprised of 25–50km-thick volcanic rocks known as basalts. Originally, scientists thought that one complete ...
The epicenter of Morocco's devastating earthquake on 8 September was in the High Atlas Mountains, about 71km south-west of Marrakesh. Moina Spooner, from The Conversation Africa, asked Jesús Galindo-Zaldivar, who has been ...
Earth Sciences
Sep 11, 2023
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Every morning and afternoon, like clockwork, the surface of the moon trembles with tiny "moonquakes." Now, new analysis of seismic activity on the moon has characterized these events and discovered that some of them are not ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 7, 2023
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The Mexican state of Guerrero, located on the country's Pacific coast, is known for its rich cultural history and for iconic beach destinations like Acapulco. It is also home to a geologically curious subduction zone.
Earth Sciences
Aug 24, 2023
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NASA's Curiosity rover has discovered the first evidence that Mars once had a climate which alternated between wet and dry seasons similar to Earth, a study said on Wednesday, suggesting the red planet may have once had the ...
Planetary Sciences
Aug 13, 2023
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Mountain ranges play a key role in global climate, altering weather and shaping the flora and fauna that inhabit their slopes and the valleys below. As warm air rises windward grades and cools, moisture condenses into rain ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 10, 2023
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Earth was not always so hospitable. Evidence of how it came to be so beautiful and nurturing is locked in the rocks of South Australia's Flinders Ranges—a site now vying for World Heritage listing.
Earth Sciences
Aug 7, 2023
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"A diamond is forever." That iconic slogan, coined for a highly successful advertising campaign in the 1940s, sold the gemstones as a symbol of eternal commitment and unity.
Earth Sciences
Jul 29, 2023
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Plate tectonics (from the Greek τέκτων; tektōn, meaning "builder" or "mason") describes the large scale motions of Earth's lithosphere. The theory encompasses the older concepts of continental drift, developed during the first decades of the 20th century by Alfred Wegener, and seafloor spreading, understood during the 1960s.
The lithosphere is broken up into what are called tectonic plates. In the case of Earth, there are currently eight major and many minor plates (see list below). The lithospheric plates ride on the asthenosphere. These plates move in relation to one another at one of three types of plate boundaries: convergent, or collisional boundaries; divergent boundaries, also called spreading centers; and transform boundaries. Earthquakes, volcanic activity, mountain-building, and oceanic trench formation occur along plate boundaries. The lateral movement of the plates is typically at speeds of 50–100 mm annually.
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