The history of Earth's continents might be different from what we first thought. The most popular theory of how the continents formed billions of years ago may not be right, according to a paper in ...

Computational modeling shows that plate tectonics weren't necessary for early continents. The formation of Earth's continents billions of years ago set the stage for life to thrive. But scientists ...

New research has dramatically reshaped our understanding of Earth’s early geological history, overturning traditional beliefs about how the planet’s first continents came into being. Researchers from ...

Microscopic zircon crystals discovered in Western Australia suggest that Earth may have had continental crust as early as 4.4 billion years ago, millions of years earlier than previously thought. For ...

Tiger Iron formed when in the sea dissolved iron reacted with free oxygen produced by the first photosynthetic life forms on Earth. For the first 2 billion years of Earth's history, there was barely ...

Scientists have eliminated one possible origin for Earth's continents. Despite the importance of Earth's continents, the huge pieces of the planet's crust that divide its oceans, very little is known ...

Geologists have discovered a long-term cycle that may connect the formation of Earth’s continents to increased comet impacts and the planet’s journey through the galaxy. The team connected ...

New research has found evidence that Earth's early continents resulted from being hit by comets as our Solar System passed into and out of the spiral arms of the Milky Way Galaxy, turning traditional ...

Earth is the only planet known to possess continents. In a new study published August 23 in the journal Geology, researchers suggest unexpected seeds for the formation of the first continents on our ...

In a bizarre geological twist of fate, researchers report that the very continents on which we humans call home were likely a byproduct of four-billion-year-old giant Earth impactors incredibly ...