Earth’s crust looks solid from the surface, but it is broken into a shifting mosaic of slabs that slowly rearrange oceans and continents. Understanding how those tectonic plates first formed is one of ...

Tectonic map of the Earth. The first continental crust on Earth formed more than 3 billion years ago. Likely the first fragments formed by partial melting and re-crystallization of the primordial ...

Research led by Jesse Reimink, assistant professor of geosciences at Penn State, suggests that the Earth's crust continued a slow process of reworking for billions of years, rather than rapidly ...

The Nazca Plate is creeping under the South American Plate. Both crustal plates are locked. Depending on the water pressure in various depths, slipping occurs with potentially devastating effects.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Earth’s crust continued a slow process of reworking for billions of years, rather than rapidly slowing its growth some 3 billion years ago, according to a Penn State-led ...