Frequent impacts from asteroids and planetesimals in Earth’s earliest days shaped the planet’s crust and created environments that may have supported prebiotic chemistry, and possibly even early life.
Earth’s crust
Posted inEditors' Vox
Mapping the Hidden Electrical Anatomy of a Continent
After nearly two decades, the first continent-wide magnetotelluric survey reveals the high-resolution electrical architecture of the North American continent.
Posted inNews
Scientists Find Thousands of Cubic Kilometers of Magma Hiding Beneath Tuscany
We already know what’s Under the Tuscan Sun. Now, a technique called ambient noise tomography has allowed researchers to see deep under the Tuscan crust.
Posted inNews
Eastern Africa Is Splitting Apart, but Not Where We Expected
The Turkana Rift Zone in Kenya entered a critical stage in continental breakup about 4 million years ago.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Seismic Attenuation Techniques Reveal What Lies Beneath Taiwan
A new imaging modality explores the complex subduction‐collision transition zone below southern Taiwan.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Hydrothermal Heat Flow as a Window into Subsurface Arc Magmas
What can warm fluids in arc crust tell us about how much magma is lurking underground? Hydrothermal heat fluxes provide constraints on the supply of magma from the mantle in subduction zones.
Posted inFeatures
Drilling Down to Open Up New Understanding of Earth’s Continents
Scientists have drilled into Earth’s crust for decades to understand natural hazards, past climates, energy resources, and more. They’ve only scratched the surface of what we can learn.
Posted inNews
Volcanism Could Lead to Less, Not More, Atmospheric CO₂
The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide temporarily fell by 50% immediately preceding a period of intense volcanism, likely because of increased weathering, new results reveal.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Tectonic Modifications Shape Surface Environment and Landscape
Earth observation through ambient noise tomography explains links between tectonic modification, ancient geological records, and landscape evolution.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
A New Way to Measure Quartz Strength at High Pressure
Direct stress measurements inside deforming quartz reveal how its strength changes with temperature, improving models of continental crust deformation.