Plate tectonics is the theory used to explain the structure of the Earth’s crust and many of the associated phenomena. The rigid lithosphere is split into 7 major ‘plates’ that slowly move on top of ...

Scientists have shed new light on the timing and likely cause of major volcanic events that occurred millions of years ago and caused such climatic and biological upheaval that they drove some of the ...

Two studies show that the movement rate of plates carrying the Earth's crust may not be constant over time. This could provide a new explanation for the patterns observed in the speed of evolution and ...

The Continental Drift Theory, proposed by Alfred Wegener in 1912, explains that all continents were once part of a supercontinent called Pangaea, which later broke apart and drifted to their present ...

ESA satellite imagery has provided the most detailed picture to date of the deformation of a continent under the extraordinary forces of continental drift, revealing surprising findings. This was ...

The breakup of the South Atlantic region, which led to the separation of the African and South American continents, is a well-known global phenomenon. In fact, the famous continental drift theory put ...

Exactly 100 years ago, German geophysicist Alfred Wegener presented his theory of continental drift – the idea that the continents of Earth are gradually drifting apart. And now we have some ...

Long before geologists worked out the theory of plate tectonics, there was discussion about whether Earth’s continents had moved about. The most detailed, and most famous, case was made by Alfred ...