Plate tectonics explain Earth's life

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plate tectonic activity

Live Science

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Did plate tectonics give rise to life? Groundbreaking new research could crack Earth's deepest mystery.

Summary

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Earth is the only known planet with plate tectonic plates that crash together and pull apart like bumper cars.

Plate tectonics may be an essential ingredient in the search for alien life.

Some think plate movement fired up as little as 700 million years ago , when simple multicellular life existed.

Plate tectonic activity has been tied to faster rates of evolution in prehistoric animals.

It may have enabled life to recover from devastating mass extinctions.

A geoscientist at the University of Texas at Dallas says plate tectonics could have emerged even before 4 billion years ago .

The only direct evidence of the first 500 million years of Earth 's existence is the presence of zircons, minerals that survive melting at mantle temperatures.

LHS 3844 b, 49 light-years from Earth , might have an active mantle and moving crust.

If real, that version of plate tectonics looks nothing like Earth 's.

It shows the diversity of planetary geology that could lurk elsewhere in the cosmos.

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