Earth's Interior

Scientists trying to determine where the missing heat from the Earth comes from have turned to an unlikely source: a microwave oven.

Researchers have found that the vast majority of brimstone — reverently referred to in biblical times as "burning stone," but now known more commonly as sulfur — dwells deep in the Earth's core.

New research claims to have solved a messy paradox that has plagued geoscientists who study Earth's core and its life-protecting magnetic field.

Continents move, but what got them going? A new computer model shows it was gravity. Whole continents flattened out under their own weight.

A battered diamond that survived a trip from "hell" confirms a long-held theory: Earth's mantle holds an ocean's worth of water.

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.