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Geology News
Plate Tectonics Current Events

Learn about plate tectonics with this slideshow of photos from around the world. Some of the areas featured include: the East African Rift Valley, Thingvellir National Park in Iceland, the San Andreas Fault, the Sheep Mountain anticline, Monument Upwarp in Utah, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Torres del Paine National Park in Chile, the Danakil Depression in Ethiopia, Adi Caieh in Eritrea, and more.

Exactly how and why did the supercontinent of Gondwana split apart? This has been a widely debated subject among geologists. A new computer model illustrates what may have happened all those millions of years ago.

Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated mean undiscovered volumes of 3.65 billion barrels of oil, 1.85 trillion cubic feet of associated/dissolved natural gas, and 148 million barrels of natural gas liquids in the Bakken Formation of the Williston Basin Province, Montana and North Dakota.

According to new research, mega-quakes (those with a magnitude of 9 or greater) can happen at any location where one tectonic plate is in active subduction.

University of California Davis researchers have new information from a 2.5 million-year sequence of sediment collected from the floor of the Ross Sea as part of Operation Deep Freeze over 40 years ago. They believe that it is one of the best paleomagnetic records from the Ross Sea.

“A UK and Swiss team found that, contrary to common scientific predictions, dense plates tend to be held in the upper mantle, while younger and lighter plates sink more readily into the lower mantle.” Quoted from the Imperial College London release.

USGS Image

Did you know that the Puerto Rico Trench is the deepest part of the Atlantic? Brian Roman’s has a short summary of the Puerto Rico Trench, with map and block diagram, and a link to where you can learn more about it.

USGS Image

The internal structure of Earth has been studied through the use of seismic waves since it is impossible to excavate or drill to such great depths. New studies on how atoms behave under extreme temperatures and pressures are making scientists question the structure and consistency of Earth’s interior.

Detailed analysis of two continent-sized storms that erupted in Jupiter’s atmosphere in March 2007 shows that Jupiter’s internal heat plays a significant role in generating atmospheric disturbances.

Chris Rowan has an interesting post on “Misconceptions in Geology”. One that he addresses in nice detail is “Tectonic plates move around on top of a sea of molten lava.”

This National Geographic article suggests that Earth is barely large enough to sustain life. If it were much smaller, plate tectonics would not be a sustained process, needed for driving the carbon cycle and stabilizing atmospheric temperatures.

A feature article on the GEOTIMES website presents new evidence that the main formation of the East African Rift is coincident with turning points in human evolution. Is this a cause and effect relationship?

For the first time, geologists have extracted intact rock samples from 2 miles beneath the surface of the San Andreas Fault, the infamous rupture that runs 800 miles along the length of California. Never before have scientists had available for study rock samples from deep inside one of the actively moving tectonic plate-bounding faults responsible for the world’s most damaging earthquakes.

Related on Geology.com: Google Map of the San Andreas Fault

Instead of creeping toward Mexico City at about one inch per year - the expected speed from plate tectonic theory - the region near Acapulco moved in the opposite direction for six months and sped up by four times, said CU-Boulder aerospace engineering Professor Kristine Larson.