Plate Tectonics May Depend on 3 Key Elements

Planet Earth is situated in what astronomers call the Goldilocks Zone—a sweet spot in a solar system where a planet’s surface temperature is neither too hot nor too cold.
Plate Tectonics May Depend on 3 Key Elements
According to geochemist Matthew Jackson, plate tectonics regulates the Earth’s temperature. Cold plates sink into the Earth and absorb heat, while volcanoes release heat where plates are spreading apart and forming. AFP/AFP/Getty Images
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Planet Earth is situated in what astronomers call the Goldilocks Zone—a sweet spot in a solar system where a planet’s surface temperature is neither too hot nor too cold. An ideal distance from a home star—in Earth’s case, the sun—this habitable zone, as it is also known, creates optimal conditions that prevent water from freezing and generating a global icehouse or evaporating into space and creating a runaway greenhouse.

However, a new theory by geochemist Matthew Jackson posits that the bulk composition of a planet may also play a critical role in determining the planet’s tectonic and climatic regimes and therefore its habitability.

In a paper in Nature Geoscience, Jackson, an associate professor in University of California–Santa Barbara’s Earth Science department, and Mark Jellinek of the University of British Columbia discuss their research.

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