We present a testable hypothesis related to an origin of life on land in which fluctuating
volcanic hot spring pools play a central role. The hypothesis is based on experimental …

The existence of mantle plumes was first proposed in the 1970s to explain intra-plate,
hotspot volcanism, yet owing to difficulties in resolving mantle upwellings with geophysical …

The Earth is the only known planet where plate tectonics is active, and different studies have
concluded that plate tectonics commenced at times from the early Hadean to 700 Ma. Many …

The lower plate is the dominant agent in modern convergent margins characterized by
active subduction, as negatively buoyant oceanic lithosphere sinks into the asthenosphere …

Models for the growth of continental crust rely on knowing the balance between the
generation of new crust and the reworking of old crust throughout Earth's history. The …

Continental crust is the archive of Earth history. The spatial and temporal distribution of
Earth's record of rock units and events is heterogeneous; for example, ages of igneous …

The continental crust is unique to the Earth in the solar system, and controversies remain
regarding its origin, accretion and reworking of continents. The plate tectonics theory has …

Scientific theories of how subduction and plate tectonics began on Earth—and what the
tectonic structure of Earth was before this—remain enigmatic and contentious …

Earth's carbon, derived from planetesimals in the 1 AU region during accretion of the Solar
System, still retains similarities to carbon found in meteorites (Marty et al. 2013) even after …

Before the origin of simple cellular life, the building blocks of RNA (nucleotides) had to form
and polymerize in favorable environments on early Earth. At this time, meteorites and …