Geology Bites
Deep interviews with geologists on plate tectonics, volcanoes, lunar magnetism and other hard mechanisms; firsthand research detail.
Deep reads here2 / 129 episodes
Cadence~1 every 22.0 days
Latest2026-10-15
Official transcriptincluded
TopicsScience & Medicine
PriorityT3
27:37Geology Bites
1002
Slab breakoff returns sunken continental crust from the mantle
Granite-composition continental crust off western Norway should have risen buoyantly, but the subducting oceanic slab below held it as an anchor and dragged it into the mantle; only after the slab fractured did buoyancy reverse and the crust follow the same path back to the surface.
8 Points
6 Quotes
GeologyMetamorphic rocks
34:07Geology Bites
0827
The crust was thinned and should have subsided, but the American West rose a mile
Evidence of plate stretching is usually buried by sediment; the Basin and Range Province in the US is a rare exception: the crust has been stretched to about twice its original width and is still extending, and GPS, paleoseismic records, and detachment faults let us see it.
6 Points
5 Quotes
structural geologyBasin and Range