An unprecedented observation of a major geological process is currently taking place off the North American coast. For the ...

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily. This animation by Miho Aoki at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Art Department ...

Oceanic plates take up a lot of water when submerged into the Earths' interior at continental margins. This water plays a central role in plate boundary volcanism. Scientists have, for the first time, ...

The initiation of plate subduction on Earth may occur before 3 billion years ago or even Hadean. Subduction is the core process of plate tectonics, which gradually lead to the co-evolution of ...

SEATTLE — Newly-released research led by the University of Washington (UW) showed that a feature scientists hypothesized was present along the Cascadia Subduction Zone is missing in places. What does ...

One of the biggest crash scenes on Earth, a subduction zone is a spot where two of the planet's tectonic plates collide and one dives, or subducts, beneath the other, according to the National Oceanic ...

The mountain ranges of the North American Cordillera are made up of dozens of distinct crustal blocks. A new study clarifies their mode of origin and identifies a previously unknown oceanic plate that ...

An enormous area of the Earth’s crust has torn and slumped, dropping about 5 kilometers (3 miles). We’ve only just noticed because this is happening beneath the Pacific Ocean, but what sounds alarming ...

Cratons are fascinating yet enigmatic geological formations. Known to be relatively stable portions of the Earth's continental crust, cratons have remained largely unchanged for billions of years.