This sample illustrates the hollow nature of many pillow basalts.
Earth cycles Global cycles of life-giving elements
These pillow buds formed when the magmatic pressure within a pillow caused tiny fractures through which magma seeped.
Earth cycles Global cycles of life-giving elements
Knightia is an extinct freshwater herring from Eocene freshwater herring from the Eocene period (about 40-55 million years ago).
Earth cycles Global cycles of life-giving elements
This gabbro formed by crystallization of magma.
Earth cycles Global cycles of life-giving elements
The most geologically active regions on Earth are where plates collide.
Earth cycles Global cycles of life-giving elements
In 1906, the seismologist Henry Reid developed the “elastic rebound theory” to explain earthquakes.
Earth cycles Global cycles of life-giving elements
Earthquakes happen all the time because of the slow but continuous motion of the lithosphere.
Earth cycles Global cycles of life-giving elements
Like icebergs or ships in water, continents and their mountains “float” on the denser mantle.
Earth cycles Global cycles of life-giving elements
As laval cools, the rock contracts.
Earth cycles Global cycles of life-giving elements
The mountain ranges that span the globe mark boundaries where the Earth’s plates converge.
Earth cycles Global cycles of life-giving elements
