Tag: continental plates

Where Continents Divide, and Rocks Rise from the Deep

by | 12.6.2011 at 10:04pm
Map shows locations of seismometers deployed to study movements of the earth around eastern Papua New Guinea.

Along the Woodlark Rift in eastern Papua New Guinea, continents are breaking apart, “like a snake opening its mouth.” Geologic processes that are still a mystery are actively stretching the crust and pushing huge masses of rock, formed under immense pressures as deep as 100 kilometers below, to the surface.