Revealed: Story of how Earth got its continents

PTI | Apr 2, 2015, 06.08 AM IST

WASHINGTON: Scientists have unveiled how continents were formed on Earth over 2.5 billion years ago — and how those processes have continued for the last 70 million years to profoundly affect the planet's life and climate. 

A study details how relatively recent geologic events — volcanic activity 10 million years ago in what is now Panama and Costa Rica — hold the secrets of the extreme continent-building that took place billions of years earlier.

This provides a new understanding about formation of the Earth's continental crust — masses of buoyant rock rich with silica, a compound that combines silicon and oxygen.

"Without this crust, the whole planet would be covered with water," said Esteban Gazel, an assistant professor of geology with Virginia Tech's College of Science. "Most terrestrial planets in the solar system have basaltic crusts similar to Earth's oceanic one, but the continental masses are a unique characteristic of Earth," said Gazel.

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I agree   with  Bill  BRYSON :
EARTH  shouls have  been  rightly  named   W A T E  R  Not  EARTH   by  scientific measure  of  PROPORTION   &  COVERAGE ,   -----------------Pibi

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