A previously unknown layer of partially molten rock has been detected beneath Earth’s crust. The discovery could help scientists learn more about the motions of Earth’s tectonic plates.

Harvard University researchers say they’ve found evidence that the outer layers of the Earth more than 3 billion years ago cracked into shifting tectonic plates, as they are today, adding to a ...

Tectonic plates are made up of Earth’s crust and the rigid top layer of the mantle, known as the lithospheric mantle. The planet has around a dozen large and irregularly shaped tectonic plates ...

Millions of years from now, Northern Africa could be home to a new ocean as tectonic plates pull apart along the East African Rift System, scientists say. Experts have long known that portions of ...