Smithsonian Magazine on MSN
When did the Earth's crust start to shift? Scientists uncover evidence of plate tectonics happening 3.48 billion years ago
The Earth’s crust is constantly changing. It’s currently made of many huge rock slabs called tectonic plates—seven major ones ...
Like a moth in a cocoon, the metamorphosis of Earth's crust from molten goop to solid land is hidden from view, leaving scientists to guess at how the eons-long process unfolds. Using nearly four ...
Earth is the planet we have the best opportunity to understand in detail—helping us see how other rocky planets behave, even ...
Rocks from Australia have given scientists the oldest direct proof that Earth's surface was moving in separate pieces 3.5 billion years ago.
The Earth with the upper mantle revealed. Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have discovered a previously unknown layer of partly molten rock in a key region just below the tectonic ...
Far below the familiar blue of the surface oceans, geophysicists are piecing together evidence for a vast, hidden reservoir of water locked inside the planet itself. Instead of filling open caverns, ...
(Left) Schematic illustration of a kink structure. (Center) Kink bands observed in mudstone near Fort Island, Rhode Island. (Right) Large-scale kink structure in Southern California, USA. Your first ...
When the supercontinent Pangea began to fragment around 200 million years ago during the Early Jurassic, it reshaped the face of the planet. Vast new oceans opened, continents drifted apart and the ...
A new study adds evidence to the idea that Earth's inner core is slowing its spin, though still rotating in the same direction as the planet. KATERYNA KON / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via Getty Images The ...
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