World Economic Forum: Watch how today’s continents were formed over one billion years – in just 40 seconds

The plate tectonic theory says that Earth’s surface is made up of slabs of rock that are slowly shifting right under our feet. Because of this constant movement, today’s Earth looks a lot different from what it did millions of years ago. In 1912, German scientist Alfred Wegener proposed that Earth’s continents once formed a … Read more…

The Conversation: Travelling through deep time to find copper for a clean energy future

More than 100 countries, including the United States and members of the European Union, have committed to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The world is going to need a lot of metal, particularly copper. Recently, the International Energy Agency sounded the warning bell on the global supply of copper as the most widely used metal in renewable … Read more…

Nicolas Flament awarded the AAS Anton Hales medal

Dr Nicolas Flament, University of Wollongong Dr Flament works at the interface between geodynamics and geology by novel 4D mathematical modelling of flow deep in Earth’s interior. He makes significant contributions to understanding our planet by connecting the evolution of the deep Earth with the evolution of its surface. He shows Earth was largely a water … Read more…

A geological postcard from Australia to Mars on NASA Perseverance

How a bit of the Australian desert is destined for the Red Planet – A small piece of the Pilbara holds the secret to an ancient geological environment that was common to Earth and Mars 3.5 billion years ago. Find out how Patrice Rey from the School of Geosciences played a pivotal role in unearthing … Read more…

Earth-moving research charts one billion years of tectonic plate movement

New research shows how the earth’s tectonic plates have shifted over the last billion years. Tectonic plates are irregular-shaped slabs of solid rock which can vary massively in size from a few hundred to thousands of kilometres across. Heat from radioactive processes within the planet’s interior causes the plates to shift. And this movement creates … Read more…