News & Views

From Mountains to Oceans: How the memory of ancient orogens guides the rupture of continents

Kai Li and edited by Pauline Gayrin October 15, 2025

Picture showing an orogen that transform in a rift

Modified from François et al., 2022.

In this new blog, Dr. Kai Li (GFZ Potsdam) talk about his PhD work, where he used accordion numerical models to explore the tectonic history of the South China Sea. His PhD research focuses on the impact of orogenic inheritance on rifts and rifted margins, employing advanced geodynamic modeling techniques. Have you ever tried to fit the west coast of Africa and the east coast of South America toge ...[Read More]

Journey Towards the Centre of the Earth: The Secret Behind the Long-Term Survival of Large Low-Velocity Provinces

Prachi Kar October 8, 2025

Geophysicists have long been intrigued by the enigmatic “blobs” residing deep within Earth’s lower mantle — the Large Low-Velocity Provinces (LLVPs). Ever wondered what keeps these gigantic thermochemical structures surviving for billions of years despite the mantle’s vigorous convection? In this week’s News & Views, Prachi Kar, a PhD candidate from Arizona State University, delves into Earth’ ...[Read More]

Kamchatka Megathrust Earthquake: What lies in the Pacific Ring of Fire

Kleoniki Lydia Theodoridou October 1, 2025

‘Continents in Relief, Bound by Shifting Plates’. Map of the World made out of chocolate. Source: (Unsplash, 2025).

From the very early years on this Planet, earthquakes have always captivated people’s attention. The feeling of admiration and fear always lies within us, especially drawing on the most recent megathrust earthquake that hit the south coast of Kamchatka’s Peninsula, in Russia, twice this year. Therefore, in this week’s blog, we aim to explore how this phenomenon evolved and why this specific region ...[Read More]

Phase transitions control plume layering during Earth’s secular cooling

Ranpeng Li and edited by Arijit Chakraborty August 20, 2025

Figure 1: A schematic summary. Time evolving in a clockwise direction. The dashed line marks a depth of 500 km, and the dotted shading indicates the pressure–temperature range where the wadsleyite ⇔ garnet (majorite) + ferropericlase phase transformation occurs. Purple shading marks areas of partial melting. The timeline calculation assumes a mantle potential temperature of 1900 K at ~3 Ga, cooling by about 100 K per Gyr.

Earth’s structure and dynamics have evolved quite a lot since its formation, and so has mantle dynamics and convection patterns changed along with it. It turns out that phase transition in certain mantle minerals can be an important driver of this change. Today, Ranpeng Li from GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Germany explains how coupling geodynamic models with thermodynami ...[Read More]