Geologists have long-debated about when plate tectonics started on the planet. One of the key indicators has been whether or not fragments of oceanic crust, generated at sea-floor spreading ...

Hess proposes sea-floor spreading 1960. Photo: Harry Hess argues that the continents had once been one, and have drifted apart. With the discovery of plate tectonics and the mapping of the earth ...

Mantle plumes are important geologic processes—they interact with plate tectonics, create rich mineral deposits, and even ...

It is gradually tearing the continent apart, forming a new ocean. The scientists collected more than 130 volcanic rock samples from across the Afar region and the Main Ethiopian Rift. They also used ...

A team drilling down into the oceanic crust has reached impressive depths, collecting incredible samples of mantle rock from 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) below the sea floor. The Earth's crust, on ...

Sea-Floor Spreading Geophysical phenomena ranging from earthquakes to continental drift are being explained by a new theory that gives promise of eventually relating geomagnetism and the earth's ...

Jingchuan Wang said: "This thickened area is like a fossilized fingerprint of an ancient piece of seafloor that subducted into the Earth approximately 250 million years ago.

Their study, "Seafloor Slopes Control Submarine Canyon Distribution: A Global Analysis," has been published in Science Advances.To investigate the causes behind the global distribution of ...

Hess proposes sea-floor spreading 1960. Photo: Harry Hess argues that the continents had once been one, and have drifted apart. With the discovery of plate tectonics and the mapping of the earth into ...