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

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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.

Researchers have published a new study that found the continental crust on Earth emerged 500 million years earlier than previously believed. According to the team, the first emergence and ...

The thickness of continental crust — the part of Earth’s crust that forms land masses and continents — plays an important role in everything from the gradual movement of continents to the evolution of ...

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 ...