Continental clues: Modern continental rocks carry chemical signatures from the very start of our planet’s history, challenging current theories about plate tectonics. Researchers have made a new ...

What is the chemical composition of the Earth’s interior? Because it is impossible to drill more than about ten kilometres deep into the Earth, volcanic rocks formed by melting Earth’s deep interior ...

A study suggests that Earth's crust in the Hadean eon, more than 4 billion years ago, was more similar to the modern continental crust than previously thought, with implications for the timing of ...

New research deepens the understanding of Earth's crust by testing and ultimately eliminating one popular hypothesis about why continental crust is lower in iron and more oxidized compared to oceanic ...

Earth's crust today has a surprisingly similar composition to the planet's first outer shell, or "protocrust," new research finds. This early rocky shell featured chemical signatures previously ...

Earth's continents have been leaking nutrients into the ocean for at least 3.7 billion years, new research suggests. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

An artist's conception of the early Earth, showing a surface bombarded by large impacts that result in the extrusion of magma onto the surface. At the same time, distal portions of the planet's ...

Researchers have confirmed that a rare geological process called lithospheric dripping is pulling pieces of the Earth’s lower crust deep into the mantle under the Konya Basin. This discovery, driven ...

Scientists show that remnants of the roots of Earth's first crust are still present in the terrestrial mantle and contribute to magmas erupted at the surface over Earth's history. In an international ...

Earth’s surface environment hosts large reservoirs of hydrogen (H, mainly in the form of water, H2O), nitrogen (in atmospheric N2) and carbon (mainly in carbonate rocks). H, N and C are sometimes ...

“To see a world in a grain of sand,” the opening sentence of the poem by William Blake, is an oft-used phrase that also captures some of what geologists do. We observe the composition of mineral ...

The crust has survived massive amounts of upheaval and change. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. A 4-billion-year-old piece of ...