Last week we dove into some of the theory of why the Earth has continents. No other planet (that we know of) has these giant bodies of lighter rocks that move around the surface of the planet, interacting along the way. We have barely scratched the surface of why continents formed and what gives them their distinct "flavor", but new research suggest some unexpected avenues for the evolution of the continents.
A new study published in Geology tried to get at what really helped get the continents started in the first place. Instead of looking at processes happening within the planet, they looked at how the solar system's position in the galaxy might have influenced geologic processes on Earth. What they found is that there might actually be a connection.
Chris Kirkland and colleagues looked at zircon from the Earth's distant past (over 2.5 billion years ago) to see if ...
