The planetary sweet spot: Abundance of elements in the Earth dictate whether plate tectonics can happen

Planet Earth is situated in what astronomers call the Goldilocks Zone—a sweet spot in a solar system where a planet's surface temperature is neither too hot nor too cold. An ideal distance from a home star—in Earth's case, the sun - this habitable zone, as it is also known, creates optimal conditions that prevent water from freezing and generating a global icehouse or evaporating into space and creating a runaway greenhouse.

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