Jupiter’s moon Europa features a warm subterranean ocean covered in ice. For years, scientists have wondered if certain surface features are the result of plate tectonics, which, if true, would make Europa the only known place in the Solar System other than Earth to experience large, subduction-driven quakes. What’s…
Dancing paleontologists, colourful graphics, and unashamed catchiness make Fossil Rock Anthem one of my favourite scientific parody songs. Even better, it's educational effectiveness is backed by research into the developing field of using music to engage students in learning science.
It's been fifty years since the Great Alaska Earthquake, the biggest ever to shake the United States. At magnitude 9.2, it leveled a city and was felt as far away as Texas. This fascinating short documentary reveals how it also led to a scientific breakthrough.
In this lovely new animation from TED-Ed, educator Michael Molina uses a pop-up book to explore the science of tectonic plates, the manner by which their shifting led to the breakup of the supercontinent of Pangea, and how their movement continues to affect the drift of Earth's continents.
A pair of Chicago-based astronomers have some good news for you alien-hunters out there. Despite previous assumptions, geophysics tell us that large Earth-like exoplanets (a.k.a. super-Earths) likely have both oceans and exposed continents. That means more Earth-like climates, too.
After nearly forty years of research, scientists have finally proven that plate tectonics exist on Mars. A recently published paper by An Yin in the journal Lithosophere reveals that the origin of Valles Marineris on Mars — the longest trough system in the solar system — was formed by rifting, strike-slip faulting,…
The Gamburtsev Mountains are over 750 miles long and nearly 9,000 feet tall, making them roughly the same size as the Alps. But nobody has ever even seen these mountains, because they're located deep beneath the Antarctic ice sheet.
A tiny, blood-red flaw inside a diamond can reveal what was happening to Earth 3 billion years ago. A recent scientific study of thousands of flawed diamonds like this one have given us a window into our planet's strange and violent past.
The inner core of our planet is roughly as big as the Moon, and we can only guess what's going on deep inside our planet. We might now have an answer...and it's even more volatile and weird than we thought.
The Rockies are a geological mystery, a massive mountain range located far away from the nearest continental plate boundary. So without crashing plates to push the Rockies out of the ground, how did they form? The answer might be suction.
Earth's continents are constantly changing, moving and rearranging themselves over millions of years - affecting Earth's climate and biology. Every few hundred million years, the continents combine to create massive, world-spanning supercontinents. Here's the past and future of Earth's supercontinets.
For those of you with a penchant for plate tectonics, there are plenty of places on Twitter to follow our planet's earthquakes as they happen.
India and China's plates smashed into each other 55 million years ago, and this collision ultimately created the Himalayas, home to the world's biggest mountains..but we weren't exactly sure when this part happened. Now, thanks to frog genes, we know.
Find out which parts of the world to visit if you want to walk away with diamonds on the soles of your shoes.
Four years ago, a volcano opened this massive crack between the African and Arabian tectonic plates in Ethopia. New research shows it could be the beginning of a new ocean shoreline.
You're looking at the Afar Depression in Ethiopia, a 12-foot-wide hot springs that exists at the junction of three massive tectonic plates. It also sits on top of a volcano.
