TECTONIC TIMELAPSE

Snapshots from the first full-plate tectonic reconstruction of the last billion years. White areas represent oceanic crust, while green areas are modelled continental lithosphere, and blue areas are additional present-day continental crust. To create this, geologists synthesised decades of research, including figuring out the locations of mountains (where continents have hit each other) and ocean basins (where continents rifted), as well as the bathymetry of the ocean (related to the locations of mid-ocean ridges, subduction zones and trenches). Scientists think the Earth was once like Mars and Venus – with a rigid outer layer and no apparent plate tectonics – but for a reason they don’t yet understand, something shifted, plate tectonics was kickstarted and everything changed.