My regular readers are going to need some context and backstory to what motivated writing this series of posts. It's a three-part series -- here is Part 2 and Part 3. I recently had an exchange with ...

This study is led by Prof. Yong-Fei Zheng at University of Science and Technology of China. It focuses on the development of tectonic processes along convergent plate margins through inspection of ...

The fragmentation of continents at convergent plate boundaries is thought to be influenced by the subducting lithosphere. Numerical modelling suggests that instead, the forces exerted by the ...

Jupiter's icy moon Europa is criss-crossed by extensional features. A tectonic reconstruction suggests that Europa's extension is balanced by subduction — if so, Earth may not be the only planetary ...

New crust is continually being pushed away from divergent boundaries (where sea-floor spreading occurs), increasing Earth's surface. But the Earth isn't getting any bigger. What happens, then, to keep ...

A budding subduction zone offshore of Spain heralds the start of a new cycle that will one day pull the Atlantic Ocean seafloor into the bowels of the Earth, a new study suggests. Understanding how ...

Note: This is the second post in a three-part series – Part 1 from earlier today is required reading. Without it you will have no context for most of this post. After reading this, go to Part 3.