The movement of the plates creates three types of tectonic boundaries: convergent, where plates move into one another; ...

In our lifetime, and for many generations to come, San Diego and Southern California will reside near the San Andreas Fault system, which divides the North American tectonic plate from the Pacific ...

In this video, we take a detailed look at plate tectonics, the scientific theory explaining the movement of Earth’s ...

Modern plate tectonics may have gotten under way as early as 3.2 billion years ago, about 400 million years earlier than scientists thought. That, in turn, suggests that the movement of large ...

A change in gemstone composition starting about 3.8 billion years ago may offer the earliest record of one tectonic plate sliding over another.

Emerging evidence suggests that plate tectonics, or the recycling of Earth's crust, may have begun much earlier than previously thought — and may be a big reason that our planet harbors life.

Long ago, Earth's outer shell cracked into pieces, which we now call tectonic plates. In a new study, scientists investigated the origins of plate tectonics and found its history rooted in Earth ...

Based on a series of models considering how the continents were assembled over time, researchers created an updated map of Earth's tectonic plates.

Scientists are constantly on a mission to untangle how Earth alone among the planets was able to evolve complex life. We know that Earth's past internal movements of the tectonic plates under our ...

Plate tectonics give Earth its mountains, earthquakes, continental drift and maybe even helped give rise to life itself. But do other planets in the solar system have them too?