Tectonics and Structural Geology

Why do Earth’s hidden stress fields matter for our future? Let’s explore the latest insights from the World Stress Map database

Asmae Ourkiya July 17, 2026

World Stress Map 2025. Source: Patterns of contemporary horizontal stress orientation in the Earth's crust derived from the World Stress Map Database 2025

Beneath the serene landscapes we inhabit, the Earth’s crust is a battleground of constant, immense, and invisible tectonic forces. While humanity typically only notices this deep-seated stress when it violently releases in the form of an earthquake and volcanoes, these forces have always been shaping the structural bedrock of our planet. Understanding this hidden architecture is one of the most vi ...[Read More]

GeoTalk: meet Gino de Gelder, researcher of the link between tectonics, sea-level rise & coral reefs!

Simon Clark January 12, 2024

Hello Gino! Welcome to GeoTalk. Could you tell our readers a little bit about yourself and your background? Sure thing! My background is mostly in tectonics, geomorphology and the evolution of (active) fault systems, which I developed during my studies at Utrecht University and my PhD at the IPGP (Paris). Initially I focused on the way that coastlines record either uplift or subsidence in response ...[Read More]

Plate Tectonics and Ocean Drilling – Fifty Years On

Tim Middleton May 16, 2018

Glomar Challenger, the DSDP research vessel that found conclusive evidence of seafloor spreading. (Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

What does it take to get a scientific theory accepted? Hard facts? A strong personality? Grit and determination? For many Earth Scientists today it can be hard to imagine the academic landscape before the advent of plate tectonics. But it was only fifty years ago that the theory really became cemented as scientific consensus. And the clinching evidence was found in the oceans. Alfred Wegener had p ...[Read More]

GeoTalk: The life and death of an ocean – is the Atlantic Ocean on its way to closing?

Laura Roberts-Artal June 23, 2017

João during his medal lecture at the General Assembly in 2017. Credit: EGU/Pflugel

Geotalk is a regular feature highlighting early career researchers and their work. Following the EGU General Assembly, we spoke to João Duarte, the winner of a 2017 Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Early Career Scientists. João is a pioneer in his field. He has innovatively combined tectonic, marine geology and analogue modelling techniques to further our understanding of subduction initiation ...[Read More]