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Ancient rocks on the coast of Oman that were once driven deep down toward Earth’s mantle may reveal new insights into subduction, an important

Using equipment in a new laboratory funded by Penn State, geoscientists are able to measure the age of rocks using an advanced mineral-dating process that analyzes the atomic proportions of uranium and lead in the mineral zircon.

IMAGE: David Kubarek Joshua Garber, a postdoctoral scholar and lab manager, plans to use the lab to study subduction zones – where oceanic plates move below continental plates and is absorbed into the mantle – and particularly the Samail Ophiolite of Oman, an obduction zone where the oceanic plate instead veered towards the Earth’s surface. When the lab gets a sample, Garber said, they’ll examine it to see the best course of action to take. They can take a sliver, put it under a microscope, and then move on to the crushing phase. The rocks are crushed and the minerals are sorted – j...

Earth’s mountains may have mysteriously stopped growing for a billion years Starting about 1.8 billion years ago, the planet's continental crust thinned, slowing the flow of nutrients into the sea and possibly stalling the evolution of life. ByMaya Wei-Haas Email If you could explore Earth’s surface a billion years ago, the most remarkable sight might be the world’s un-remarkability. There would be no trees or bugs, nor birds overhead. The only life is simple and small, a slimy oceanic soup. Science points to yet another feature that may be missing: towering mountains. The restless tect...