Mercury may once have been covered by a thin crust of graphite, the same form of carbon used in pencils. New laboratory ...

As the BepiColombo mission prepares to enter the final phase of its journey to Mercury, a series of studies conducted by ...

Continental clues: Modern continental rocks carry chemical signatures from the very start of our planet’s history, challenging current theories about plate tectonics. Researchers have made a new ...

Earth's crust ranges from 5 to 70 kilometers in thickness and serves as the planet's outermost layer. This thin shell represents less than one percent of Earth's total mass, yet it's the only layer we ...

The composition of Earth's crust depends on the style of plate tectonics and of the melting regimes in the mantle. Analyses of the oldest identified rocks suggest that these styles and the resulting ...

A study suggests that Earth's crust in the Hadean eon, more than 4 billion years ago, was more similar to the modern continental crust than previously thought, with implications for the timing of ...

A new study finds the original crust on Mars is more complex, and evolved, than previously thought. Researchers have determined the Martian crust has greater concentrations of the chemical element ...