Plate Tectonics Archives

Topographic data are draped over infrared image data showing complex tectonic structures and volcanic deposits in the Eridania region of Mars. Warm colours are higher elevation. CREDIT NASA/Mars Odyssey/HRSC

Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Mars, Press Release

Diverse Ancient Volcanoes On Mars May Hold Clues To Pre-plate Tectonic Activity On Earth

by Keith CowingFebruary 16, 2024February 16, 2024

Volcanoes are a common feature on the surfaces of solid planets within the solar system, resulting from magmatic activity occurring within the planetary crust. On Earth, volcanism is driven primarily […]

Archean plate tectonics would operate subsequent to the regime of stagnant lid tectonics, involving not only bottom-up processes such as mantle plumes and heat pipes but also top-down processes such as lithospheric foundering and subduction. These vertical processes were not unique to the Archean but persisted into the Phanerozoic. CREDIT ©Science China Press

Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Fossils & Paleontology, Habitable Zones, Press Release

Plate Tectonics In The Archean: Observation Versus Interpretation

by Keith CowingJanuary 4, 2024January 4, 2024

The plate tectonics theory established in the 20th century has been successful in interpreting many geological phenomena, processes and events that have occurred in the Phanerozoic. However, the theory has […]

Despite Venus being such a scorching wasteland, the planet is often referred to as Earth’s sister because of similarities in size, mass, density and volume. Photo: NASA/JPL

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Press Release, Venus

Venus Had Earth-like Plate Tectonics Billions Of Tears Ago, Study Suggests

by Keith CowingOctober 27, 2023October 27, 2023

Venus, a scorching wasteland of a planet according to scientists, may have once had tectonic plate movements similar to those believed to have occurred on early Earth, a new study […]

Rochester researchers Wriju Chowdhury and Dustin Trail reveal information about early Earth using tiny zircon crystals, which are billions of years old and a fraction of a millimeter in size (scale bars are in micrometers, where 1 micrometer = 0.000001 meter). The researchers use an imaging technique called cathodoluminescence that fires electrons from a cathode at a sample. The holes in the crystals are from a laser that removed part of the grain to allow the researchers to acquire chemical information. (Smithsonian Institution photo)

Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Habitable Zones, Press Release

Was Plate Tectonics Occurring When Life First Formed On Earth?

by Keith CowingApril 4, 2023April 4, 2023

Earth is a dynamic and constantly changing planet. From the formation of mountains and oceans to the eruption of volcanoes, the surface of our planet is in a constant state […]

Astrogeology

Hemispheric Tectonics on Super-Earth LHS 3844b

by Keith CowingMarch 3, 2021

The tectonic regime of rocky planets fundamentally influences their long-term evolution and cycling of volatiles between interior and atmosphere. Earth is the only known planet with active plate tectonics, but […]

Astrogeology

Plate Tectonics May Have Driven The Cambrian Explosion

by Keith CowingJune 19, 2019

The quest to discover what drove one of the most important evolutionary events in the history of life on Earth has taken a new, fascinating twist. A team of scientists […]

Habitable Zones, Press Release

Carbon Cycling and Habitability of Earth-size Stagnant Lid Planets

by Keith CowingJuly 31, 2018

Models of thermal evolution, crustal production, and CO2 cycling are used to constrain the prospects for habitability of rocky planets, with Earth-like size and composition, in the stagnant lid regime. […]