GeoLog

tectonics

Plate Tectonics and Ocean Drilling – Fifty Years On

May 16, 2018
Plate Tectonics and Ocean Drilling – Fifty Years On
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]

How to make a planet habitable

April 11, 2018
How to make a planet habitable
The surface of Venus - a static lithosphere, known as a stagnant lid. Credit: NASA.

Exoplanets without plate tectonics could harbour life, contrary to previous belief For a planet to be habitable, it needs a stable climate. On Earth, the movement of tectonic plates ensures old crust is recycled and new crust is created and weathered. This cycling of rock consequently overturns the planet’s carbon, which keeps the climate in check. While we have plate tectonics on Earth, many othe ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Tones of sand

January 2, 2017
Tones of Sand
Tones of sand Credit: Marc Girons Lopez (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu

With rocks dating as far back as the Precambrian, mountain building events, violent volcanic eruptions and being covered, on and off, by shallow seas, Death Valley’s geological history is long and complex. Back in the Cenozoic (65 to 30 million years ago), following a turbulent period which saw the eruption of volcanoes (which in time would form the Sierra Nevada of California) and regional uplift ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Mola de Lord

August 31, 2015
Imaggeo on Mondays: Mola de Lord
Mola de Lord . Credit: Sarah Weick (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

From the easterly Atlantic waters of the Bay of Biscay to the Catalan wild coast (Costa Brava) in the west, the Spanish Pyrenees stretch 430 km across the north of the country. At the foothills of the Catalan Pyrenees you’ll find the Pre-Pyrenees. Despite not reaching the soaring heights of the peaks of the Pyrenees, they nonetheless offer important insights into the geology of the range and stunn ...[Read More]