The rocks didn’t look like much from the outside. Scattered across a remote stretch of western Australia called North Pole Dome, they were ancient, weathered, and largely ignored for the better part ...

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 ...

Our planet has experienced dramatic climate shifts throughout its history, oscillating between freezing "icehouse" periods and warm "greenhouse" states. Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest ...

Earth’s Ediacaran Period, roughly 630 to 540 million years ago, has always been something of a magnetic minefield for scientists. During earlier and later time periods, tectonic plates kept a steady ...

Carbon released from Earth’s spreading tectonic plates, not volcanoes, may have triggered major transitions between ancient ice ages and warm climates, new research finds. Published today in ...

(CNN) — The puzzle pieces of Earth’s rocky crust are slowly and steadily moving — a process known as plate tectonics. These dynamic movements helped to create the habitats and climate that fostered ...