A study reveals that the oldest continental crust on Earth is slowly being broken up by shifting tectonic forces.

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 ...

Layers based on chemical composition are the core, mantle and crust. According to mechanical properties, Earth's layers are the lithosphere, asthenosphere, lower mantle (also known as mesospheric ...

There is evidence that 60-70% of the Earth's continental crust was formed by around 3 billion years ago. It continues to grow today, but at rates that are more than 3 times slower. Most of that growth ...

Both elements have long been used to study the history of continental crust. According to the researchers, certain signatures of hafnium and neodymium that appear during the Archean eon would have had ...

A study published in Nature on 2 April reveals that Earth's first crust, formed about 4.5 billion years ago, probably had chemical features remarkably like today’s continental crust.

Australia holds the oldest continental crust on Earth, researchers have confirmed, hills some 4.4 billion years old. For more than a decade, geoscientists have debated whether the iron-rich Jack ...

The crust of Earth, the planet's outer shell, is divided into two rough categories: The older, thicker continental crust; and the younger, denser oceanic crust.

Continental crust is vital in most of Earth’s natural cycles—it interacts with water and oxygen, forming new weathered products, hosting most metals and biological carbon. Large meteorite impacts are ...

Every 200 million years, the solar system passes through a spiral arm of the Milky Way (illustrated). Those encounters may have played a role in forming Earth’s first continental crust.