The first continents on Earth formed between 3 and 2.5 billion years ago. Geologists studying the oldest rocks found on Earth believe that partial melting, fueled by the heat released during the decay ...

These ancient metamorphic rocks called gneisses, found on the Arctic Coast, represent the roots of the continents now exposed at the surface. The scientists said sedimentary rocks interlayered in ...

Scientists recently published new ideas about why Earth’s toughest, oldest continents persist. These continents, known as cratons, have been on earth for more than two billion years. Andrew Zuza, an ...

Cratons are pieces of ancient continents that formed several billions of years ago. Their study provides a window as to how processes within and on the surface of Earth operated in the past. Cratons ...

Monash University geologists have shed new light on the early history of the Earth through their discovery that continents were weak and prone to destruction in their infancy. Their research, which ...

The continent of North America is not a single, thick, rigid slab, but is instead more similar to a layer cake, with a section of 3-billion-year-old rock sitting atop much newer material, a new study ...

Ancient, expansive tracts of continental crust called cratons have helped keep Earth's continents stable for billions of years, even as landmasses shift, mountains rise and oceans form. A new ...

The Daitari greenstone belt shares a similar geologic make-up when compared to the greenstones exposed in the Barberton and Nondweni areas of South Africa and those from the Pilbara Craton of ...