Subduction, a crucial geological process on Earth, may have begun hundreds of millions of years earlier than traditionally believed. This surprising discovery comes from a new study published by ...

A new study, resorting to computational models, predicts that a subduction zone currently below the Gibraltar Strait will propagate further inside the Atlantic and contribute to forming an Atlantic ...

Our planet's lithosphere is broken into several tectonic plates. Their configuration is ever-shifting, as supercontinents are assembled and broken up, and oceans form, grow, and then start to close in ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. David Bressan is a geologist who covers curiosities about Earth. Oct 29, 2025, 03:16pm EDT Nov 01, 2025, 01:11pm EDT For the first ...

The initiation of plate subduction on Earth may occur before 3 billion years ago or even Hadean. Subduction is the core process of plate tectonics, which gradually lead to the co-evolution of ...

Understanding the origins of the Ring of Fire, the most seismically active place on Earth, is famously difficult as geologic evidence is destroyed in the process. Now a new study suggests that ...

Convergent plate boundaries, where one lithospheric plate descends beneath another, drive subduction and ultimately lead to arc-continent collision. In classical subduction settings, the downgoing ...

The Atlantic Ocean may begin to shrink, said a new study published in the journal Geology. Oceans are not necessarily a permanent fixture on Earth, as they are able to appear and close due to the work ...

That would have enabled more of this organic carbon—and carbonate accumulating in shallow water around Columbia—to be subducted deep into the mantle. Then comes the Boring Billion, when even mantle ...

Map highlighting the Atlantic subduction zones, the fully developed Lesser Antilles and Scotia arcs on the western side and the incipient Gibraltar arc on the eastern side. From Duarte et al., 2018.