Learn how subduction zones form, drive massive earthquakes, create volcanoes, and shape Earth’s surface through powerful tectonic processes.

This study is led by Prof. Yong-Fei Zheng at University of Science and Technology of China. It focuses on the development of tectonic processes along convergent plate margins through inspection of ...

New crust is continually being pushed away from divergent boundaries (where sea-floor spreading occurs), increasing Earth's surface. But the Earth isn't getting any bigger. What happens, then, to keep ...

The fragmentation of continents at convergent plate boundaries is thought to be influenced by the subducting lithosphere. Numerical modelling suggests that instead, the forces exerted by the ...

Most of the prominent mountain chains on Earth fall into one of two classes. External mountain belts are located at the margins of continents: the ocean floor sinks into the mantle below the continent ...

The initiation of plate subduction on Earth may occur before 3 billion years ago or even Hadean. Subduction is the core process of plate tectonics, which gradually lead to the co-evolution of ...

In an article published in Science Advances, a collaborative team led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) presents a never-before-seen image of an oceanic transform fault from ...

A budding subduction zone offshore of Spain heralds the start of a new cycle that will one day pull the Atlantic Ocean seafloor into the bowels of the Earth, a new study suggests. Understanding how ...