Microscopic zircon crystals discovered in Western Australia suggest that Earth may have had continental crust as early as 4.4 ...

Parts of ancient Earth may have formed continents and recycled crust through subduction far earlier than previously thought.

The first continents on Earth formed between 3 and 2.5 billion years ago. Geologists studying the oldest rocks found on Earth believe that partial melting, fueled by the heat released during the decay ...

Geoscientists have uncovered a missing link in the enigmatic story of how the continents developed- - a revised origin story that doesn't require the start of plate tectonics or any external factor to ...

The mechanisms underlying two important phenomena in the Archean—the emergence of continental crust and the presence of an exceptionally strong geomagnetic field—remain poorly understood. Notably, ...

Geologists from St. Petersburg State University, as part of an international scientific team, have analyzed rock data from ...

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge in Iceland. This area is the boundary between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates, which move apart ~ 2.5 cm/year. Subduction and the formation of continents, a ...

Continental clues: Modern continental rocks carry chemical signatures from the very start of our planet’s history, challenging current theories about plate tectonics. Researchers have made a new ...