These continents are still on the move today. Exactly what drives plate tectonics is not known. One theory is that convection within the Earth's mantle pushes the plates, in much the same way that ...

The plates make up Earth's outer shell, called the lithosphere. (This includes the crust and uppermost part of the mantle.) Churning currents ... tectonic boundaries: convergent, where plates move ...

The Earth is made up of different layers: Therefore, instead of tectonic plates moving because of the convection currents, evidence suggests it is the plates that drive the convection. Slab pull ...

An unexpected find in tiny crystals hints that the Earth's mantle may not quite behave as has been believed for nearly a ...

One explanation for plate movements is slab pull. Plates are extremely heavy so gravity acts upon them, pulling them apart. Alternatively, as shown in the diagram, convection currents under the ...

Plate tectonics is a theory that explains how Earth’s lithosphere—its upper mantle and crust—is split into sections called plates, which move. These movements create mountains, volcanoes and ...

One discovery that ought to be on everyone's rundown is plate tectonics - the description ... sea floor in that part of the globe was able to move, much like a curved paving stone, initiating ...

The team studied the mineral zircon from two of the oldest pieces of intact crust—dating 4.0 to 2.7 billion years old—and discovered that ancient plate tectonics, or how the continents move ...

Scientists may have discovered the world's oldest arc-slicing fault in Northwestern Australia's remote deserts. The finding ...

Researchers found the ghostly white critters sandwiched beneath slabs of solidified lava along the East Pacific Rise, a fast-spreading ocean ridge where several tectonic plates meet off the coast ...

Tectonic plates are able to move because the Earth's lithosphere has greater strength than the underlying asthenosphere. Lateral density variations in the mantle result in convection. Plate ...