Earth's Interior

Researchers recently discovered a new crystal defect in olivine that helps explain how the mantle drives plate tectonics.

Chunks of the thick crust that covered the early Earth may have dripped down into the mantle layer below, shedding light on how the Earth's interior behaved early in Earth's history.

The earthquakes that struck New Zealand's South Island in 2010 and 2011, the second of which killed scores of people, weakened the crust around the ruptured fault.

A new computer model of Earth's inner core suggests a seismic-wave slowdown comes from changes in iron's strength just before the metal melts.

A new model explains how the newly born Earth's iron core formed as dribs and drabs of iron percolated inward from the planet's lower mantle.

The Earth's magnetic field is responsible for the rotation of both the inner and outer cores, new research suggests.

The heat near Earth's core flows at a slower rate than previously thought. The findings shed light on how the world's innards move and drive major events on the planet's surface.

The find helps scientists understand processes like mountain-building and volcanism.