Deep beneath our feet, the planet plays a game of pull and smash with tectonic plates that influence everything from coastlines to climates, all on timescales that make human life feel like a blink.

Scientists still have many questions about the earliest years of our planet. Earth formed about 4.55 billion years ago, but almost no rocks from that time have survived. Without those ancient rocks, ...

Rather than shutting down all at once like a "big train wreck," the Juan de Fuca plate is ripping apart piece by piece, ...

A continental collision trapped oil within what is today Iran. The same collision explains why that oil is trapped behind the Strait of Hormuz now ...

Deep within Earth’s mantle lie two enormous regions, often referred to as "islands," which are the size of continents.

Houchin and his colleagues studied dozens of zircon crystals from the Jack Hills in Western Australia. These are the oldest ...

Far beneath the Atlantic Ocean, about 1,000 kilometers off Portugal’s coast, lies a colossal underwater canyon system that dwarfs even the Grand Canyon. Known as the King’s Trough Complex, this ...

When we dream of landscapes, we might imagine rolling valleys or rugged mountains. But there is a whole landscape hidden from human view: the secret world of the seafloor.

Africa is breaking apart along a giant crack that will form a new ocean between two large masses of land millions of years from now, the latest research shows. The split is taking place along the East ...

It was a groundbreaking discovery. Scientists have found previously concealed fault lines along California’s north coast, sparking concerns that we could be drastically underestimating the earthquake ...

Hello parents, teachers and students! If you’re looking for a fun way to explore how landscapes and our world have changed over millions of years, check out this fun, edible exercise using graham ...

“If we don’t understand the underlying tectonic processes, it’s hard to predict the seismic hazard,” said co-author Amanda Thomas, professor of earth and planetary sciences at UC Davis. Three of the ...