Our work allows us to update maps of tectonic plates and the formation of continents that are found in classroom textbooks. These plate models which have been assembled from topographic models and ...

This article is more than 10 years old. Last Sunday, May 24, marked the 109th birthday of geologist Harry Hammond Hess, who discovered the primary mechanism of plate tectonics.

Called Pontus, the 'mega-plate' was once 15 million square miles, about a quarter the size of the Pacific Ocean, report experts at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.