As a new coping mechanism with reality, Sascha has been digging into some science history and asked: How did scientists discover plate tectonics? Dear Sascha, I do enjoy a good walk on the memory lane of scientific discoveries. You might know by now that great insight is gained when we look at data with fresh eyes. Hence, lots of advances in certain narrow scientific fields come from outsiders. In ...[Read More]
Despite workshops and seminars and conference sessions and Zoom colloquia, of which Geraldine has attended many, one big question remains in geophysics: What drives plate tectonics? Dear Geraldine, Slab pull? Ridge push? Mantle drag? Continental keels? Super plumes? Mantle wind? Expanding Earth? God? Nope, there is only one explanation that truly fits the data and passes the common sense test: The ...[Read More]
This week in News & Views, Anne Glerum, postdoc at GFZ Potsdam, discusses how her numerical models support a lithosphere-driven mechanism for the rotation of large continental microplates, like Victoria in the East African Rift System. The East African Rift System (EARS) is a newly forming divergent boundary between the Nubian and Somalian plates (Fig. 1). The plate boundary system includes se ...[Read More]
One of the basic tenets of plate tectonics states that deformation occurs along plate boundaries while plate interiors remain almost undeformed. Intraplate earthquakes defy this principle and hence are quite enigmatic. In this week’s News and Views, Prof. Attreyee Ghosh from the Centre for Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, tries to explain the reasons behind intraplate ea ...[Read More]
