Indonesia’s frequent earthquakes are not random; they can be traced back to the dynamic and powerful forces of plate tectonics. But what exactly is plate tectonics, and how does it cause Indonesia to ...

Earth surface is covered with rigid plates that move, crash into each other and dive into the planet's interior. But when did ...

Here’s how it works. Plate tectonics may have played a larger role in the evolution of life on Earth than we previously thought. (Image credit: Nicholas Forder) Earth's surface is a turbulent place.

Significantly, that chronology decouples plate tectonics from the origin of life on Earth: evidence of the earliest single-celled organisms dates back more than 3.6 billion years.

The origins of plate tectonics on Earth are hotly debated, but evidence from Australia now shows that parts of the crust ...

The Geological Society was founded in 1807, so plate tectonics came really late in its history. But it needed the right technologies and a relatively small group of scientists from strongly led ...

Plate Tectonics emerged in the late1960s when geologists realized that plates moving on Earth’s surface at fingernail-growth speeds side-swipe each other at some places (like California) and ...

Plate tectonics allows heat from Earth's interior to escape to the surface, forming continents and other geological features necessary for life to emerge. Accordingly, "there has been the ...

Whereas Earth has plate tectonics, some other bodies — such as Mars, Mercury and Earth's moon — have what is called a stagnant lid.

The end result is a form of tectonics distinct to Venus—at least at the present. As the authors note, the temperature conditions within Venus at the present look a lot like what the Earth ...

When and how plate tectonics started is a key question among geologists. Some researchers think it started more than 4 billion years ago, and others say it started only about 1 billion years ago.