The colossal movements of tectonic plates shape our world, influencing the composition of Earth’s atmosphere, the planet’s protective magnetic field and perhaps even the flourishing of life. Now ...

Earth's tectonic plates have moved continuously since they emerged a whopping 3.6 billion years ago, according to a new study on some of the world's oldest crystals. Previously, researchers thought ...

Earth's surface is ever-changing, with tectonic plates grinding and shifting, building mountain ranges, pulling apart sea floors and causing dramatic earthquakes. Now, new research adds to the growing ...

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Researchers used small zircon crystals to unlock information about magmas and plate tectonic activity in early Earth. The research provides chemical evidence that plate tectonics was most likely ...

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 ...

Occasionally, planet Earth will grab the headlines: Underwater volcanic eruptions send ash into the air, or earthquakes generate massive waves that send people running for safety as the rest of us ...

Far below the oceans and continents we know, Earth’s deep mantle appears to have stored far more water in its early history than scientists once imagined. New experimental work on high‑pressure ...

Plate tectonics, the idea that the surface of the Earth is made up of plates that move apart and come back together, has been used to explain the locations of volcanoes and earthquakes since the 1960s ...