All articles tagged with #tectonics
Scientists using an undersea observatory at the Southeast Indian Ridge captured a rare, real-time birth of new seafloor during a 2024 tectonic event, revealing seafloor spreading can occur in dramatic bursts rather than steadily and opening new avenues for marine geophysics.
Scientists mapped a giant, fan-shaped set of basins beneath East Antarctica using sub-ice topography, gravity, magnetic and seismic data, suggesting a cohesive tectonic province formed by distributed rotational extension before Gondwana split. The proposed East Antarctic Fan-Shaped Basin Province may represent a continent-scale scar that helped guide the Antarctica–Australia separation and influence ice-flow patterns, though the timing and full implications remain uncertain and require further testing.
Using deep-learning analysis of seismology data, researchers identified hundreds of small intraplate earthquakes under Antarctica’s David Glacier at depths around 70 km, with magnitudes between 1.6 and 3.5. The events, occurring away from plate boundaries, suggest complex lithospheric dynamics and could prompt revisions to plate tectonics theory, with AI tools potentially revealing similar activity globally.
New seismic data show the Turkana Rift in East Africa has thinned to about 13 km in places and is widening at roughly 4.7 mm/year, indicating advanced necking of the crust and weakening that could eventually lead to continental breakup and the formation of a new ocean—though this would occur over millions of years. The finding helps explain the region’s deep basins and rich fossil record, tying tectonic activity to the Turkana Basin’s unique paleoanthropological significance.
Scientists have identified a continent-scale network of buried basins beneath East Antarctica, linking major subglacial features like Wilkes Basin, Aurora Basin, and the Lake Vostok basin into a single fan-shaped system called the East Antarctic Fan-shaped Basin Province. Formed by distributed rotational extension in the crust, this structure offers new clues about Gondwana tectonics and may influence ice dynamics, subglacial lake locations, and the stability of vulnerable parts of the Antarctic Ice Sheet as the climate changes. The team combined topography, gravity, magnetic, seismic data, and rebound modeling to reconstruct the landscape beneath the ice.
Researchers have identified a giant, fan-shaped subglacial basin province beneath East Antarctica, formed by distributed rotational extension that connects major basins such as Wilkes, Aurora, and the Lake Vostok region; this may reflect Gondwana breakup and indicates East Antarctica has a more dynamic tectonic history than previously thought, with possible implications for how the ice sheet responds to climate change.
Scientists mapped about 30 connected basins beneath East Antarctica, forming a fan-shaped province (EAFBP) that radiates from a central South Pole area. The radially arranged basins point to rotational extension that predates Gondwana’s breakup and may have guided ice movement and landscape evolution, reshaping our understanding of Antarctica’s bedrock and its history.
New research published in Science argues Yellowstone's magma system is heated by tectonic forces within the crust—driven by lithospheric stretching and the sinking Farallon slab—rather than by a deep mantle plume, a shift that could alter eruption models and future forecasts.
New research suggests Yellowstone's magma plumbing is heated by tectonics and lithospheric stretching rather than a deep mantle plume, with competing forces under the crust opening pathways from mantle to the caldera. The finding could improve eruption forecasting and help explain other caldera systems.
A new study finds Mount Etna's lava originates from a melt in the mantle's low-velocity zone and rises through a tectonically complex zone at the Africa-Eurasia boundary, producing early silica-rich lava and later alkali-rich lava, suggesting Etna represents a previously unclassified form of volcanism that could be more widespread than scientists previously thought.
Seismic data reveal the Turkana Rift in East Africa is thinning far more than previously thought, with the crust at the rift center about 13 km thick compared with well over 35 km away, signaling an advanced necking stage toward eventual continental breakup and ocean formation. The process began millions of years ago and will take millions more to unfold, while subsidence and sedimentation here also help preserve an unusually rich fossil record, influencing interpretations of human evolution and past climates.
A new 3D model of Yellowstone and the Eastern Snake River Plain suggests tectonic forces within the lithosphere drive magma generation and migration from the shallow mantle (upper asthenosphere) into a complex plumbing system, rather than a deep mantle plume powering a single giant chamber. This tectonically controlled magma movement could improve eruption forecasting and hazard assessment for the park’s massive caldera, whose last major eruption occurred about 630,000 years ago and is not expected imminently.
In Ethiopia’s Afar region, a triple-junction rift is slowly pulling Africa apart, providing a rare window into continental rifting as mantle plumes pulse and plates shift at millimeters per year. Scientists study Erta Ale’s lava lake and fossil finds like Paranthropus to understand deep geology, while concluding that a new ocean may form only over millions of years and that the region offers invaluable insights into Africa’s geological history.
Scientists mapped the King’s Trough, a 500+ km underwater canyon in the North Atlantic, and determined it formed over millions of years by the slow separation of the European and African plates via a tectonic 'zipper,' aided by unusually thick, hot crust from the Azores mantle plume. The finding, reported after METEOR expedition data and high‑resolution sonar, links deep mantle processes to surface tectonics and reshapes how we think about underwater canyon formation.
Geologists propose that a dense chunk at the base of the Uinta Mountains’ lithosphere ‘dripped’ into Earth’s mantle, temporarily pulling the range downward and allowing the Green River to cut perpendicularly across the mountains to join the Colorado River, forming the Canyon of Lodor. Seismic imaging reveals a ~200 km-deep, cold chunk and thinner crust beneath the range; after the drip broke free about 2–5 million years ago, the mountains rebounded, the canyon solidified, and the Green River became a Colorado River tributary, reshaping North America’s continental divide.