In what could be described as a rather difficult adolescence, Earth earliest continents remained in flux — disappearing and reappeared over 1.5 billion years before finally gaining form.
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Articles on Continental drift
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New research uncovers the fundamental factors that control the Earth’s surface, providing insights into how land levels will respond to the melting of ice sheets and sea level rise.
New research has found that the continents ended up where they are today because of previous plate tectonic processes that controlled how Pangaea broke apart.
We undertook a 28-day voyage to explore a possible lost continent in a remote part of the Coral Sea, in an area off the coast of Queensland. Here’s what we found.
Giant forces slowly move continents across a viscous layer of the Earth, like biscuits gliding over a warm toffee ocean. This stresses the continents, and twists and contorts the crust.
Fresh earthquakes and aftershocks hit parts of Papua New Guinea following February’s deadly quake. It’s Australia’s slow push north that’s part of PNG’s seismic activity.
The world’s oldest known material is from Western Australia. But for much of Australia’s geological past, the eastern states simply didn’t exist. They’re relative newcomers to our ancient continent.
Researchers have found a small piece of a “lost continent” buried underneath the lava on Mauritius.
Fire has been viewed as the main protagonist in creating Africa’s iconic savannas. However, new research shows that browsing animals created savannas millions of years before fire became important.
Fifty years on from a groundbreaking paper, geophysicists have progressed from believing continents never moved to thinking that every movement may leave a lasting memory on our planet.
Top contributors
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Associate professor, University of Sydney
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ARC DECRA Fellow, University of Sydney
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Professor of Geophysics, University of Sydney
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Associate Professor, University of Tasmania
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Professor of Human Geography, University of Sydney
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Professor of Geology, University of Adelaide
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Research Fellow, Northwest University, Xi'an
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Assistant Professor, Environmental Geophysics, University of Toronto
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Research Fellow, Ndlovu node, South African Environmental Observation Network & Visiting lecturer, University of the Witwatersrand
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Professor, University of the Witwatersrand
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Research Fellow, University of Adelaide
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Associate Professor in Geophysics, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
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PhD candidate, University of Adelaide
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Research Fellow in Computational Geodynamics, Australian National University
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Post doctoral associate, University of Sydney
