When oceanic plates meet continental plates, the continental plates usually come out on top. Cases where this is reversed provide valuable access to oceanic crust and mantle materials.
plate tectonics
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Wharton Basin Earthquakes: Evidence for a New Plate Boundary?
The largest ever strike-slip earthquake may have occurred on a newly developing boundary between the Indian and Australian plates.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Bending Plate Provides Unexpected Heat Source
Scientists discover the causes for heat flow anomalies near the Japan Trench.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
New Insights into the Formation of Old Norwegian Mountains
Researchers look to minerals in rocks from Norway's Western Gneiss Region to determine when the mountain-making period came to a close in the region.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Overriding Plate's Properties Affect Subduction
The properties of the plate that does not sink may strongly control subduction zone dynamics.
Posted inNews
Tiny Mineral Grains Could Drive Plate Tectonics
Scientists turn to granular scales to explain how plate tectonics may have evolved billions of years ago.
Posted inScience Updates
Earthquake Monitoring Gets Boost from New Satellite
Europe's Sentinel-1A spacecraft and its extraordinary images of slip from the South Napa earthquake herald a new era of space-based surveillance of faults.
Posted inNews
Pacific Plate's Underbelly Revealed Through Explosive Means
Scientists produce their own seismic waves—via explosives—to image the bottom region of the plate subducting under the New Zealand.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Mapping Seismic Activity in the Pamir Mountains
Researchers plot deformation from 6000 seismic events across the central Asian mountain range to better understand its tectonic history.
Posted inScience Updates
Reading History From Afar
A look at the sedimentary record in northern Ethiopia tells the story of oceans past—and maybe future.