Earth’s tectonic plates

This is the first time that the Earth’s geological record—information found inside rocks—has been used to create an animation like this. Using information from inside rocks on the Earth’s surface, we’ve reconstructed the planet’s plate tectonics over the past 1.8 billion years. This is the first time the Earth’s geological record has been used in this way, looking back so far into the past. This allowed us to undertake an effort to map the planet for the most recent 40%