Geology Bites: An Earth and Planetary Science Podcast

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Alex Copley on Soft Continents

We tend to think of continental tectonic plates as rigid caps that float on the asthenospheric mantle, much like oceanic plates. But while some continental regions have the most rigid rocks on the planet, wide swathes of the continents are not rigid at all. In the podcast, Alex Copley explains how this differentiation comes about and points to evidence that the responsible processes have been operating since the Archean. Copley is Professor of Tectonics in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge. Illustrations and full transcript: https://geologybites.com/alex-copley

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  Tony Watts on the Mechanics of Tectonic Plates

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  Torgeir Andersen on Ultrahigh-Pressure Metamorphism

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  Brian Wernicke on Lithospheric Extension and the Basin and Range Province

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  Bernhard Steinberger on Whether Hotspots Are Fixed

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  Sonia Tikoo on the Moon's Magnetic Field

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  Steve Brusatte on the Dinosaurs That Survived the Asteroid

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  Alec Brenner on When Tectonic Plates First Moved

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  Steve Jacobsen on Materials in Extreme Environments

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  Esther Sumner on Turbidity Currents

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  Hal Levison on the Mission to Jupiter's Trojan Asteroids

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  Sara Pruss on the First Reef Builders

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  Michael Manga on Wet Eruptions

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  Carina Hoorn on the Evolution of the Amazon Basin

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  Anat Shahar on What Makes a Planet Habitable

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  Keith Klepeis on How Plutons Form

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  Tom Herring on High-Precision Geodesy