The Antarctic Circumpolar Current could only develop once wind patterns aligned with new ocean passages 34 million years ago, a new study suggests.
plate tectonics
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Constructive Debate on the Rise of the Tibetan Plateau
A constructive debate on Himalayan tectonics shows how respectful scientific dialogue helps test competing ideas about how Earth’s highest plateau formed.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Distant Cousins? How Field Work on Earth Could Help Us to Better Understand Titan
What do Saturn’s moon Titan and the Earth have in common? Quite a lot as it turns out, from hydrocarbon deposits to polar clouds, lakes and rivers, craters and canyons, and more.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
An Ancient Landscape Beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet
Geophysical observations of the subglacial topography of Coats Land reveal a landscape formed by tectonics and fluvial erosion that influenced the formation of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet.
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 inEditors' Vox
Terrestrial Planets Guide Our Search for Habitable Exoplanets
Earth and its rocky neighbours reveal how planetary processes—core-mantle differentiation, crust formation, tectonics, and geochemical cycling—between interior and surficial reservoirs shape habitability.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Salt: A Vital Compound for Science and Society
From salt basins in the Persian Gulf to lithium reserves in Chile, evaporite minerals accumulate in sedimentary basins under tectonic and climatic processes of significance to scientists worldwide.
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
Models Reveal Imprint of Tectonics and Climate on Alluvial Terraces
Mechanistic models are used to show how different drivers, including sediment and water supply, uplift and subsidence, and sea-level variations, affect the shapes and formation of extensive terraces.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Rocky Shore Erosion Shaped by Multi-Scale Tectonics
Statistical analysis of western United States shore evolution provides hints of long-term tectonic and seismic cycle effects on modulating coastal erosion.