Seismic mapping of North America has revealed that an ancient slab of crust buried beneath the Midwest is causing the crust ...

Geologists have made certain assumptions about how the crust making up our planet's earliest surface formed, but a new study ...

In this diagram, the red lines represent the edges of the tectonic plates that make up the Earth's crust. For example, iron is mined from the Earth's crust in quarries. It is a finite resource ...

Get Instant Summarized Text (Gist) Earth's first crust, formed around 4.5 billion years ago, likely had chemical features similar to today's continental crust, suggesting that the distinctive ...

The study also provides a new approach to solving one of the biggest enduring scientific mysteries: when did plate tectonics begin?

Researchers discover Earth's first crust, formed 4.5 billion years ago, had chemical features similar to modern continental crust. (photo credit: Tanya Kalian. Via Shutterstock) A study published ...

A diagram showing how Earth's crust and upper mantle (together known as the lithosphere) could be dripping into the mantle due to the Farallon slab. (Image credit: Hua et al. Nature Geoscience (2025)) ...