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

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

Plate tectonics may be unique to Earth and may be an essential characteristic of habitable planets. Estimates for its onset range from over 4 billion years ago to just 800 million years ago. A new ...

But Australia's Pilbara Craton, with its 3.59 billion-year-old rocks, is a vital region for understanding the origins of plate tectonics.

Scientists led by Michael Ackerson, a research geologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, provide new evidence that modern plate tectonics, a defining feature of Earth and its ...

New Study on Zircons Finds Plate Tectonics Began 3.6 Billion Years Ago The research reveals how one of Earth’s defining geologic features likely formed — and set the stage for the emergence of ...