Although shallow magma storage at Erta Ale volcano hints at a rift-to-ridge transition, the tectonic future of the Afar region is far from certain.
plate tectonics
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Walter C. Pitman III (1932–2019)
Pitman pioneered research on seafloor spreading, proposed a scientific backstory to the Great Flood and Noah’s Ark, and reveled in spirited discussions of all kinds.
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Geodetic Data Pinpoint Earthquake-Prone Regions of the Himalayas
GPS measurements of the Indian and Eurasian plates reveal four locked segments most likely to produce large earthquakes.
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Sediments May Support the Mediterranean Megaflood Hypothesis
Millions of years ago, the Mediterranean Sea may have evaporated. A newly identified body of sediments could have been deposited by the giant flood that refilled the basin.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
What Controls How Quickly Faults Heal?
The rates at which fault zones “heal” through secondary mineralization have been elusive, but uranium-thorium dating of calcite growth in fault-zone fractures may provide the answer.
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The Layered Legacy of Clyde Wahrhaftig
As the geologist’s beloved guidebook gets a digital makeover, his personal contributions to the field shed light on who he was as a scientist.
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Three Times Tectonics Changed the Climate
Fifty years after the birth of modern plate tectonics theory, a group of researchers highlights three key examples of how our planet’s shape-shifting outer layer has altered our climate.
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Will Earth’s Grandest Canyon Keep Getting Grander?
Living in Geologic Time: Rafting through the past, present, and future of the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon.
Posted inEditors' Vox
How Chemical Processes Influence Fracture Pattern Development
Many tools of chemical analysis, experimentation, modeling, and theory have the potential to increase our understanding of how fracture patterns develop at different geological time scales.
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A New Dimension to Plate Tectonics
New tools to model and visualize subduction zones in 3-D are providing researchers with insights into the gaps inherent in the theory of plate tectonics.