Deep beneath the Central African Plateau, something vast is stirring. In Zambia's remote Kafue Rift, hot springs are ...

Scientists say they have evidence of a new continental rift forming in southern Africa that could eventually develop into a ...

If this continues to develop, this rift could grow into a new tectonic plate boundary—splitting the African continent in half. In a Frontiers in Earth Science study published yesterday, an ...

See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. The plate tectonics that determine the shape of our continents may have ...

Have tectonic plates changed speed over the last 3 billion years? The answer has far-reaching implications, as plate tectonics affected everything from the supply of vital nutrients for early life to ...

The theory of plate tectonics describes how the plates of rock that make up Earth’s rigid shell, the lithosphere, jostle around to form structures such as continents, mountains and deep ocean trenches ...

Researchers used small zircon crystals to unlock information about magmas and plate tectonic activity in early Earth. The research provides chemical evidence that plate tectonics was most likely ...

It’s right there in the name: “plate tectonics.” Geology’s organizing theory hinges on plates—thin, interlocking pieces of Earth’s rocky skin. Plates’ movements explain earthquakes, volcanoes, ...

Plate tectonics, the idea that the surface of the Earth is made up of plates that move apart and come back together, has been used to explain the locations of volcanoes and earthquakes since the 1960s ...

Earth’s plate tectonics could be a passing phase. After simulating rock and heat flow throughout a planet’s lifetime, researchers have proposed that plate tectonics is just one stage of a planet’s ...

A new study introduces a novel way for tectonic plates — massive sheets of rock that jostle for position in the Earth’s crust and upper mantle — to bend and sink. It’s a bit of planetary Pilates that ...