Nature – Spreading continents kick-started plate tectonics

Rey, P. F., Coltice, N., & Flament, N. (2014). Spreading continents kick-started plate tectonics. Nature, 513(7518), 405-408. doi: 10.1038/nature13728.

Spreading continents kick-started plate tectonics

EarthByte researchers Assoc. Prof Patrice Rey and Dr Nico Flament, together with collaborator Prof Nicolas Coltice from the AUGURY project in France have a new theory about the initiation of subduction, which suggests that spreading of early continental crust may have created gravitational instability which kick-started this plate-tectonic process. Watch an animation of the model results here!

The paper was discussed in the Nature editorial and received extensive media attention across international news sites including these stories:

The paper was also discussed in these blogs:

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