Researchers build model that may explain how plate tectonics got its start
Monday, April 7, 2014 - 08:00
in Earth & Climate
(Phys.org) —Two researchers, David Bercovici of Yale University and Yanick Ricard with the University of Lyon, have together used mathematical modeling to help explain how it was that our planet came to have tectonic plates and why they behave the way they do today. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the pair have explained how they performed mathematical analysis on observations of rocks today and combined data taken from prior theories to come up with a new model that might reflect Earth's history during the first billion years of its existence.