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.
plate tectonics
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.
Posted inNews
A Mid-Ocean Ridge in the Norwegian Sea Pumps Out Hydrogen
Vent fluids collected from the Knipovich Ridge contain unexpectedly high concentrations of hydrogen, potentially produced by the degradation of organic matter.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Changes in Slab Dip Cause Rapid Changes in Plate Motion
Periods of slab shallowing in the South American subduction zone appear to cause decelerations in Nazca plate motion.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
The Language of the Crust: Investigating Fault-to-Fault Interactions
Faults don’t just form—they respond, resist, and reshape the crustal narrative.
Posted inNews
When Cascadia Gives Way, the San Andreas Sometimes Follows
Roughly half of the earthquakes that occurred along the southern Cascadia subduction zone over the past 3,000 years were temporally associated with earthquakes along the northern San Andreas fault.