Geodynamics

Arijit Chakraborty

Arijit is a PhD student at Durham University, UK. His current research deals with numerical modelling of long-term craton dynamics and their effect on mineral deposition along its edges. His research interests range from continental dynamics, seismic anisotropy to craton formation and survival.

The Geodynamics Awakens: Star Wars Planets and Earth’s Geological History

Arijit Chakraborty September 2, 2026

Credits: Lyman Hansel Gerona [Unsplash]

Star Wars is one of the most influential science-fiction worlds created in our time. The central theme revolves around the struggle between the tyrannical Galactic Empire and the rebels trying to bring it down. Star Wars has many reasons to pull you in: iconic lightsaber duels, technological advancements such as hyperspace travel, and perhaps most importantly for a geologist: a remarkable number o ...[Read More]

Cratons: building blocks of continents and their economic importance

Arijit Chakraborty, edited by Constanza Rodriguez Piceda and edited by Michaël Pons December 17, 2025

A map showing how mineral deposits are often concentrated along the edges of the thick lithosphere. The coloured boxes represent distribution of large igneous intrusions, which contains Ni-Cu-PGE deposits and the circles represent distribution of carbonatites which might contain REEs (Lithosphere thickness data from Priestley et al, 2024, Carbonatite locations from Liu et al., 2022, large igneous intrusion locations from Smith and Maier, 2021)

The 4.5 billion years of geologic evolution has shaped the tectonic processes in Earth we see today. Over the span of time, Earth has changed from being a magma ocean to a tectonically active planet, by transitioning through different tectonic regimes. A silent witness of this journey have been cratons which have survived for billions of years. Therefore cratons preserve clues of past tectonic pr ...[Read More]