Fault reactivation plays a fundamental role in the generation of plate tectonics from mantle convection. Converging and transform plate margins are mechanically weak due to both preexisting faults and preserved shear zones within the crust and lithosphere, on the one hand, and continuous brittle failure of lithosphere, on the other hand. Transform margins are the site for nucleating new converg...

Abstract Interpretation of Earth's oldest preserved crustal archive, the Jack Hills zircon Western Australia, has been controversial in terms onset plate tectonics. We conduct time-series analysis on hafnium isotopes and reveal an array statistically significant cycles that are reminiscent plate-tectonic subduction. At face value, such may suggest early Earth conditions similar to those today—t...

The rise of plate tectonics theory in the 1960s contributed to a revival long-neglected idea continental drift, and revolutionized Earth sciences by shifting people’s perception that continents were fixed belief they constant state motion.

While it is generally assumed that global plate motions are driven by the pattern of convection in the Earth’s mantle, the details of that link remain obscure. Bouyancy forces associated with subduction of cool, dense lithosphere at zones of plate convergence are thought to provide significant driving force, but the relative magnitudes of other driving and resisting forces are less clear, as ar...

Abstract Lateral movement of lithospheric fragments along strike-slip faults in response to collision (escape tectonics) has characterized convergent settings since the onset plate tectonics and is a mechanism for formation new plates. The Anatolian was created by sequential connection following ≥10 m.y. distributed deformation that ultimately localized into plate-bounding faults. Thermochronol...