Researchers used zircons and AI to reconstruct Earth's ancient crust, revealing possible tectonic processes from the planet's ...

New research has dramatically reshaped our understanding of Earth’s early geological history, overturning traditional beliefs ...

Geologists from the University of Hong Kong (HKU) have made a breakthrough in understanding how Earth's early continents ...

The rifting of continents involves faulting (tectonism) and magmatism, which reflect the strain-rate and temperature dependent processes of solid–state deformation and decompression melting ...

New research from HKU geologists suggests that Earth's first continents were born not from plate tectonics, but from deep ...

Little is known about the nature and evolution of Earth's continental crust before a few billion years ago because cratons, or stable swaths of the lithosphere more than 2–3 billion years old ...

The first emergence and persistence of continental crust on Earth during the Archaean (4 billion to 2.5 billion years ago) has important implications for plate tectonics, ocean chemistry, and ...

Researchers using a new method involving the mineral barite have dated the first emergence of continental crust to 500 million years earlier than previously thought. The results will be presented ...

There could also be implications for the evolution of life in the ocean, which thrived on those continental nutrients, the researchers said — however, more research is required to know for sure.

Continental crust is also less dense than oceanic crust, though it is considerably thicker; mostly 35 to 40 km versus the average oceanic thickness of around 7-10 km. About 40% of the Earth's ...

The Earth’s continents drift at a speed of a few centimeters per year. Things get complicated when two landmasses collide, causing the crust to roll up, stretch, bend, and tear. The collisions ...