Scientists Solve Long-Standing Mystery of Rising Continents

Study shows continental breakup causes deep Earth waves, leading to the rise of topographic features like escarpments and plateaus.

A team of scientists led by the University of Southampton has answered one of the most puzzling questions in plate tectonics: how and why ‘stable’ parts of continents gradually rise to form some of the planet’s greatest topographic features.

In their study, recently published in Nature, the researchers examined the effects of global tectonic forces on landscape evolution over hundreds of millions of years. They found that when tectonic plates break apart, powerful waves are triggered deep within the Earth that can cause continental surfaces to rise by over a kilometer.