Stretching like a colossal spine along western South America, the Andes stand as the world's longest mountain range. It spans ...

Earth's continents are slowly moving across the planet's surface due to plate tectonics, culminating in regions of crustal expansion and collision. In the latter case, high temperatures and pressures ...

New research reveals that Earth’s continents owe their stability to searing heat deep in the planet’s crust. At more than 900°C, radioactive elements shifted upward, cooling and strengthening the ...

While there are many different volcanic hotspots throughout the world, lots of which fall within the Pacific Ring of Fire ...

In the classic example of mountain-building, the Indian and Asian continental plates crashed -- and continue colliding today -- to form the world's largest and highest geologic structures: the ...

Continents are part of what makes Earth uniquely habitable for life among the planets of the solar system, yet surprisingly little is understood about what gave rise to these huge pieces of the planet ...

A new study from scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and the University of Chicago sheds light on a hotly contested debate in Earth sciences: when did plate subduction ...

A new study suggests that 120 to 150 kilometers (75 to 93 miles) under the Earth’s surface there is 1000 trillion tons of diamonds. The diamonds are in the “roots” of cratons, which are large sections ...

Feb. 20 (UPI) --The chance of a major earthquake in America's heartland remains extremely low, but new research suggests continental interiors aren't as tectonically stable as geologists thought.

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. David Bressan is a geologist who covers curiosities about Earth. This is how the western hemisphere of the Earth may have appeared ...