Image: Tiny crystals called zircons are used to date oceanic crust. A newly developed method that detects tiny bits of zircon in rock reliably predicts the age of ocean crust more than 99 percent of ...

For millions of years, Earth’s shifting plates have shaped continents, formed oceans, and built towering mountain ranges. But ...

Earth’s journey through the Milky Way might have helped create the planet’s first continents. Comets may have bombarded Earth every time the early solar system traveled through our galaxy’s spiral ...

An international research team has discovered that a subduction zone's age affects the ability for it to recycle water between the Earth's surface and its inner layers. The more mature the subduction ...

A long-lost oceanic plate is diving deep into the mantle, dragging down the crust above, researchers say. However, the plate is also tearing apart below the Zagros Mountains in Iraq as it plunges ...

A cartoon illustrating different modes of crust formation in the lower oceanic crust. Panel A shows the Gabbro Glacier model. Panel B shows the Sheeted Sills model. Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert!

A new ocean could form in the distant future after a split continues to form in Africa, according to researchers. "This is the only place on Earth where you can study how a continental rift becomes an ...

The crusty conundrum carries fundamental implications. The thickness of continental crust — the part of Earth’s crust that forms land masses and continents — plays an important role in everything from ...