A team of geologists and mineral physicists at Harvard University, the University of California, Argonne National Laboratory ...

Potential patches of Earth's ancient crust, sometimes called "sunken worlds," may have just been discovered deep within the mantle, thanks to a new way of mapping the inside of our planet.

The mantle, a zone between our planet’s thin crust and the molten core, features 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) of mostly solid rock, with a consistency like thickened caramel that scientists ...

That part of the mantle is made of old tectonic plates that break into tiny pieces when they sink deep enough into the planet. The LLSVPs, by contrast, contain larger crystals than their surroundings.

Scientists of course cannot cut into Earth and directly observe its insides. Instead, their knowledge is inferred from the ...

Now, seismologists have found new clues about their composition that could upend our understanding of the whole planet's ...

Jess Thomson is a Newsweek Science Reporter based in London UK. Her focus is reporting on science, technology and healthcare. She has covered weird animal behavior, space news and the impacts of ...

New research has identified numerous potential subducted slabs in surprising locations throughout Earth's mantle — the second outermost layer of our planet. | Credit: Vadim Sadovski/Shutterstock ...