The theory of plate tectonics is one of the great scientific advances of our age, right up there with Darwin’s theory of evolution and Einstein’s theory of relativity. The idea that Earth’s outer ...

On present-day Earth, plate subduction continuously modifies the chemical composition of the convecting mantle, and various mantle sources linked to these processes have been widely studied. However, ...

An exceptionally well-preserved skull from a fish which lived 384–382 million years ago helps explain how plate tectonics played a key role in the evolution of ancient bony fish which eventually led ...

Ancient plate tectonics in the Archean period differs from modern plate tectonics in the Phanerozoic period because of the higher mantle temperatures inside the early Earth, the thicker basaltic crust ...

A geologic map of the Pilbara Craton in Western Australia. The rocks exposed here range from 2.5 to 3.5 billion years ago, offering a uniquely well-preserved window into Earth's deep past. The authors ...

Our planet has an outer layer made up of several plates, which move relative to one another. While we may take this knowledge for granted, this theory of plate tectonics was only formulated in the ...

Coelacanths are deep-sea fish up to two metres in length which were believed to have been extinct. Coelacanths are deep-sea fish that live off the coasts of southern Africa and Indonesia and can reach ...

At school, most of us learnt that the Earth’s tectonic plates ‘float’ like large rocky rafts. But teachers were vague about what the pieces of Earth’s crust actually float on because no one really ...

Scientists observed that the Indian Plate, situated underneath Tibet, is undergoing significant changes, which lead to its division into two components. Scientists observed the tectonic plate split ...