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Scandinavia was born from Greenland — 250 million years earlier than we thought

This helps researchers piece together what was happening in the early days of the planet’s history.

This cool website lets you know which dinosaurs used to live near your city

This cool website shows you what the Earth was like hundreds of millions of years ago — and what dinosaurs were around.

The Indian tectonic plate may split up Tibet — eventually

These things happen in geological time, not over night.

Stellar pollution shows exoplanets are more diverse than we thought -- but few are like Earth

Exoplanet composition may be much more varied and weird than we thought.

Earth's history gets rewritten by a single drop of water

The findings show that plate tectonics started 3.3 billion years ago, coinciding with the period when life started on Earth.

Earth may have generated its own water - geologically

A new study may have finally found where Earth’s water came from. There are currently two competing theories, with one claiming that our planet generated its own water geologically, while the other suggests that water was brought by icy comets or asteroids from outside. A new study concluded that most of the water we see […]

Jupiter's Moon Europa found to have Plate Tectonics

Europa, Jupiter’s icy moon is the only body in the Solar System found to have plate tectonics (besides Earth). A new study has found several defining features, including plate subduction, broken linear features and offset likely caused by strike slip faults. An introduction to plate tectonics Plate tectonics is one of the newest big theories […]

Geophysicists find a layer of liquefied rock in the Earth's mantle that acts as a lubricant for tectonic plates

Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have found a layer of liquefied molten rock in Earth’s mantle that may be acting as a lubricant for the sliding motions of the planet’s tectonic plates. This discovery has very far reaching implications, which can solve some of the long standing geological puzzles, as […]

Massive Indian Ocean quakes may signal tectonic break-up

The past few years have been marked by numerous seismic events, some of dramatic magnitude; aside from the huge 9.1 temblor in Japan, the world was also shocked by the pair of massive earthquakes that rocked the Indian Ocean on 11 April 2012. However, as geophysicists warn, this may only be the beginning – the […]

5.9 earthquake hits the US East Coast

A small, yet frightening earthquake, registered at 5.9 magnitude, sent shivers down people’s spines all the way from Ottawa, Canada to North Carolina as it hit the North American east coast. The earthquake first caused ground shacking at 1:51 p.m. ET, when it measured 5.9 in magnitude and lasted only 45 seconds, according to the […]

Texas was attached to Antarctica, 1.1 billion years ago

Despite an evident contrast, geologists claim that the region of modern day El Paso, Texas was once attached to the now icy continent of Antarctica, in an effort to piece together the giant pieces of a puzzle that formed a pre-Pangaea supercontinent. “Most people are familiar with Pangaea,” said study co-author Staci Loewy, a geochemist […]

Quartz may be key to plate tectonics

Plate tectonics is one of the most important theories, from the point of view of its practical effects on society – just look at the earthquake in Japan, or the iminent one in California, for example. More than 40 years ago, a man named J. Tuzo Wilson published a paper in Nature, describing how ocean […]

Quake moved Japan by at least 8 feet

The devastating seismic event that struck Japan is affecting the entire world, and even the entire planet. While smoke continues to rise from the catastrophic temblor, Japan seems to have moved 8 feet inland, or even more, according to the USGS. “That’s a reasonable number,” USGS seismologist Paul Earle told AFP. “Eight feet, that’s certainly […]