Data from California's Whipple Mountains suggest this complex was formed by a succession of steep normal faults, challenging the paradigm that detachments are different types of faults.
plate tectonics
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Alteration Along the Alpine Fault Helps Build Seismic Strain
Detailed analysis of cores drilled through New Zealand's most dangerous on-land fault indicates that its permeability and strength are altered by mineral precipitation between seismic events.
Posted inScience Updates
Geological Insights from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 Search
A rich trove of marine geophysical data acquired in the search for missing flight MH370 is yielding knowledge of ocean floor processes at a level of detail rare in the deep ocean.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Fingerprinting the Source of Fore-Arc Fluids
A new model tracks boron and other tracers in fluids expelled from subducting slabs to help identify the fluids' source regions and migration routes.
Posted inScience Updates
Tackling Unanswered Questions on What Shapes Earth
Origin and Evolution of Plate Tectonics; Ascona, Switzerland, 18–22 July 2016
Posted inFeatures
A Meeting That Helped Foster the Acceptance of Global Tectonics
Fifty years ago, in the United States added their heft to a theory with profound implications: Earth's ocean crust recycles itself on a global scale, and continents move across the face of the planet.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Understanding Tectonic Processes Following Great Earthquakes
Scientists parse out the processes underlying tectonic signals detected by GPS networks.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Plate Boundaries and Natural Hazards
The editors of a new book on tectonics discuss the origins of the science and its importance in a new millennium.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
A Significantly Hotter Mantle Beneath Iceland
Estimates of crystallization temperatures from four eruptions in northern Iceland offer improved constraints on the mantle's temperature beneath this anomalous divergent plate boundary.
Posted inNews
Cubans, Americans Bridge a Scientific Rift
Two scientific communities that evolved separately for more than 50 years reunited last week to share their findings and plan a more unified future.