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Plate Tectonics Current Events | Plate Tectonics News

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Plate tectonics may take a break
Plate tectonics, the geologic process responsible for creating the Earth's continents, mountain ranges, and ocean basins, may be an on-again, off-again affair.   view more (2008-01-04)

Remnants of ice age linger in gravity
Researchers have uncovered a large area of low but increasing gravity over North America - the lingering effect of the last ice age when sheets of ice sometimes three kilometres thick covered nearly all of Canada and the northeastern U.S.   view more (2007-05-11)

Hot climate could shut down plate tectonics
A new study of possible links between climate and geophysics on Earth and similar planets finds that prolonged heating of the atmosphere can shut down plate tectonics and cause a planet's crust to become locked in place.   view more (2008-05-13)

'Finger rafting:' Ice sheets that mesh when they meet
A study reported in Physical Review Letters demonstrates how ice sheets sometimes interlace when they meet, rather than riding over or under each other, and discusses the implications for other phenomena from plate tectonics of the Earth's surface to the design of self-assembling nanostructures.   view more (2007-03-02)

Earth's Moving Crust May Occasionally Stop
The motion, formation, and recycling of Earth's crust-commonly known as plate tectonics-have long been thought to be continuous processes. But new research by geophysicists suggests that plate tectonic motions have occasionally stopped in Earth's geologic history, and may do so again. The findings could reshape our understanding of the history and... view more... (2008-01-10)

New map hints at Venus's wet, volcanic past
Venus Express has charted the first map of Venus's southern hemisphere at infrared wavelengths. The new map hints that our neighbouring world may once have been more Earth-like, with both, a plate tectonics system and an ocean of water.   view more (2009-07-14)

UCL scientists create first earthquakes in the laboratory
Scientists at UCL have recreated earthquakes in the laboratory for the first time allowing them to better understand the origin of the largest and most violent earthquakes. This is the first time scientists have been able to generate and observe deep and intermediate focus earthquakes in the laboratory, recreating the exact pressure and... view more... (2002-11-14)

Scripps/UCSD geophysicist among international team finding evidence of first plate tectonics
Identification of the oldest preserved pieces of Earth's crust in southern Greenland has provided evidence of active plate tectonics as early as 3.8 billion years ago, according to a report by an international team of geoscientists in the March 23 edition of Science magazine.   view more (2007-03-23)

Biologist and geologist honoured in major international prizes
A Swiss developmental biologist, Walter Gehring, and a French geologist, Xavier Le Pichon, have each been awarded a prize of 1,000,000 Swiss Francs for their work on genes that control the development of the eye, and plate tectonics respectively. [Note: Swiss Francs 1 million is equivalent to £431,000 or US$ 667,000]. They were the two... view more... (2002-09-10)

Hotspots or Not? Isotopes Score One for Traditional Theory
One great beauty of plate tectonics theory is that it explains so many geological phenomena at one time. But plate tectonics could not explain the location of many volcanic islands - Hawaii, the Azores or the Galapagos Islands, often called "hotspots" - far from the edge of tectonic plates.   view more (2006-12-07)

New definition could further limit habitable zones around distant suns
As astronomers gaze toward nearby planetary systems in search of life, they are focusing their attention on each system's habitable zone, where heat radiated from the star is just right to keep a planet's water in liquid form.   view more (2009-06-11)

International Conference on Earth Science Research
These include the fields of sedimentology - the study of sediments; biogeography - pattern and distribution of living organisms; geomorphology - land forms and processes, and tectonics - the structure and movement of the Earth's crust.   view more (1999-08-16)

Eastern California shear zone puzzles seismologists
Residents and seismologists in Northern California focus on the San Andreas Fault, but a Penn State researcher thinks more questions should be asked about the Eastern California Shear Zone, a fault that ends or dissipates without a clear connection.   view more (2005-10-18)

Tectonic plates act like variable thermostat
Like a quilt that loses heat between squares, the earth's system of tectonic plates lets warmth out at every stitch.   view more (2007-08-14)

Extraterrestrial platinum was 'stirred' into the Earth
Report author CSIRO Minerals Down Under Flagship researcher Dr Stephen Barnes said the study group collected a large body of data on the platinum content of lava flows called komatiites, which host some of the world's major nickel deposits.   view more (2009-07-31)

Volcanic plumbing dictates development of deep-sea hydrothermal vents
After years of results that repeatedly dogged him, University of Oregon geologist Douglas R. Toomey decided to follow the trail of data surfacing from the Pacific Ocean. In doing so, he and his collaborators may have altered long-held assumptions involving plate tectonics on the ocean floor.   view more (2007-03-22)

New study finds Power Plate exercise aids in weight loss, reduction of harmful visceral fat
New research presented at the 17th European Congress on Obesity (ECO) suggests that exercise done on Power Plate® vibration plate exercise machines in conjunction with a healthy diet may help people lose weight and trim harmful belly fat.   view more (2009-05-11)

Is a Russian peninsula really part of North America?
For many years geologists have harbored a belief that the Kamchatka Peninsula, shrouded in mystery and secrecy on Russia's east coast, actually sits on the same tectonic plate as the mainland United States, Canada and Mexico.   view more (2006-05-03)

Jade sheds light on Guatemala's geologic history
A new analysis of jade found along the Motagua fault that bisects Guatemala is underscoring the fact that this region has a more complex geologic history than previously thought.   view more (2009-07-28)

Bent tectonics
More than 80 undersea volcanoes and a multitude of islands are dotted along the Hawaii-Emperor seamount chain like pearls on a necklace. A sharp bend in the middle is the only blemish.   view more (2009-04-03)
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