Long-persistent stable cratons bear much of the deep-time geologic record, and a new study combines seismic and petrological data to reveal how interactions with mantle fluids can shape their evolution.
lithosphere
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Piecing Together the Roots of the Ancient Australian Continent
Mineral compositions from numerous volcanic rocks that sample the mantle keel beneath Western Australia’s Kimberley Craton reveal the temperature and mineralogy that explain its long-lived stability.
Posted inNews
Shifts in Tectonic Plates Change Biodiversity
A 36-million-year cycle of marine biodiversity booms and busts matches the movements of plate tectonics, linking what happens deep below the ocean to what’s happening in it.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Uncovering Mantle Heterogeneities Beneath Drifting Continents
Computational models of the composition and volumes of magmas during continental rifting evolution provide clues on the heterogeneities of the deep melting mantle.
Posted inNews
The Mysterious Case of Ireland’s Missing Earthquakes
The Emerald Isle has far fewer earthquakes than neighboring Britain. Now scientists think they know why.
Posted inNews
Mounds of Ancient Ocean Floor May Be Hiding Deep in Earth
A mysterious seismic feature at the bottom of Earth’s mantle is more widespread than previously thought.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
4D Viscosity Constraints from Greenland
The mantle’s resistance to flow appears different for glacial and plate tectonic timescales but this behavior can be reconciled with new thermo-mechanical models of the asthenosphere.
Posted inEditors' Vox
The Seven-Ages of Earth as Seen Through the Continental Lens
The 4.5-billion-year record contained in Earth’s continental crust reveals a seven-phase evolution, from an initial magma ocean to the present-day environment in which we live.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Small-Scale Convection Shuffles the Oceanic Lithosphere
Seafloor spreading organized lithospheric minerals into a lattice, but small-scale convection jumbled up the innermost layer.