Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I cover aerospace, astronomy & hosted The Cosmic Controversy Podcast. An earth-like planet’s ability to globally recycle its ...

A newly discovered tectonic "regime" may explain why Earth has active plates while Venus remains stagnant.

Evolution is usually a gradual process, but about half a billion years ago it took off at a gallop in an event that's now known as the Cambrian Explosion. One of the leading theories is that this was ...

An international team has made a significant breakthrough in understanding the tectonic evolution of terrestrial planets.

A new study links the emergence of new hominin species, expanding brain capacity and early human migration with the appearance of deep freshwater lakes Editor's note: The following essay is reprinted ...

Identification of the oldest preserved pieces of Earth's crust in southern Greenland has provided evidence of active plate tectonics as early as 3.8 billion years ago, according to a report by an ...

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 ...

An exceptionally well-preserved skull from a fish which lived 384–382 million years ago helps explain how plate tectonics played a key role in the evolution of ancient bony fish which eventually led ...

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 ...

On present-day Earth, plate subduction continuously modifies the chemical composition of the convecting mantle, and various mantle sources linked to these processes have been widely studied. However, ...