New sediment-provenance data date the closure of the southern Neotethys and the Arabia–Eastern Anatolia collision to 74–71 million years ago, at least 25 million years earlier than previously estimated.
Tectonics
Posted inFeatures
Daniel Pastor-Galán: Studying Ancient Earth, with a Little Help from His Friends
This rock lover carries his musical inspirations with him as he peers far back in geologic time.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Southeast Tibet Grew in Pulses, Not All at Once
Mineral cooling ages reveal three pulses when uplift and erosion exposed deeper rocks, showing that Southeast Tibet grew outward, step by step, over roughly 80 million years.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Recycled Rocks Reveal Subduction Zone Dynamics Off Baja California
High-pressure rocks on Cedros Island were exhumed, eroded, and redeposited into the subduction trench multiple times, reshaping interpretations of ancient plate boundary processes.
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
Editorial Handover at Tectonics
The outgoing and incoming Editors-in-Chief of Tectonics reflect on recent years of growth and expansion in the journal while they plan for the challenges ahead.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Announcing New AGU Journal Editors-in-Chief Starting in 2026
AGU is excited to welcome new Editors-in-Chief for five of our journals in 2026.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Trapped Charge Techniques Pinpoint Past Fault Slip
Scientists combine two novel dating techniques on fault gouge to better pinpoint the timing and nature of past fault activity in the Eastern Alps.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Isotopes Unearth History of Earthquakes in the Apennines
Dating of cosmogenic chlorine isotopes yields long-term estimates of fault activity in Italy, showing that periods of earthquakes and quiescence alternate over millennia.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Structural Inversion of an Intracratonic Rift System in Deep Time
A new study reconstructs how an ancient North American rift system was uplifted in space and time due to subsequent continent-continent collision.