Research on hidden structures deep within Earth’s mantle challenges theories about our planet’s middle layer and could ...

Without the convective mantle, there wouldn't be enough energy to move the plates. But convection on its own isn't enough to guarantee that a planet or moon will exhibit plate tectonics.

are where tectonic plates pull apart due to convection currents in the mantle. Most constructive plate boundaries are found on ocean floors. Some of these undersea volcanoes become so large that ...

Discover why Africa is slowly splitting into two continents due to the East African Rift. This geological transformation, ...

Over 25 years ago, researchers discovered that some of these deep Earth reverberations pointed to the existence of two underground “super-continents” hundreds of miles beneath Africa and the Pacific ...

The ocean plate was once the seafloor of Neotethys — an ocean that formed when the supercontinent Pangaea broke up into a ...

Since the late 1960s, when plate tectonics and slow, creeping convection of the rocky mantle became accepted, geoscientists have been debating whether convection extends from the surface to the ...

The Earth's mantle, the layer between the crust and the core, is the stage for slow but powerful movements. These movements, called convection, are responsible for plate tectonics. Oceanic plates, ...

"Subducting tectonic plates that end up in the slab graveyard ... also imply that they are not involved in the convection or flow of the mantle, meaning that the mantle may not be as well-mixed ...