Earth's Plates May Tale a Break

By Phil Berardelli

ScienceNOW Daily News

4 January 2008

Gridlock.
Movement of the plates that made up the
supercontinent Pangaea could have stopped
temporarily and decreased Earth's volcanic activity.

Credit: Nicolle Rager, National Science Foundation,
based on Pangaea map data, Paleogeographic Atlas
Project, University of Chicago

Time and tide may wait for no man, but continents occasionally do. That's the conclusion of a study published today in Science, which finds that the inexorable drift of Earth's tectonic plates isn't inexorable at all. In fact, the planet could be headed for another pause in continental drift, with uncertain and possibly ominous consequences.... (more)