A handful of ancient zircon crystals found in South Africa hold the oldest evidence of subduction, a key element of plate tectonics, according to a new study published today in AGU Advances, AGU’s ...

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 ...

Observations indicate that plate tectonics began before any currently known structural geological record on Earth Identification of the oldest preserved pieces of Earth’s crust in southern Greenland ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Plate tectonics may have ...

Ancient volcanic rocks from Western Australia suggest that water was reaching deep into Earth’s interior more than three ...

Earth is currently the only planet known to harbor life—thanks in large part due to the operation of plate tectonics, which cycles critical biogeochemical elements and maintains a planetary thermostat ...

Deep beneath the Pilbara region of Western Australia lies some of the oldest and best preserved crust anywhere on the planet, ...

In the 45°C heat of the midday April sun, I swing my sledgehammer into the terracotta-varnished lobes of pillow basalt overlooking a sparse, almost Martian landscape. Up close, the rock is freckled ...

Harvard University researchers say they’ve found evidence that the outer layers of the Earth more than 3 billion years ago cracked into shifting tectonic plates, as they are today, adding to a debate ...

Earth is a dynamic and constantly changing planet. From the formation of mountains and oceans to the eruption of volcanoes, the surface of our planet is in a constant state of flux. At the heart of ...