New map of Earth’s tectonic plates ‘could help predict natural disasters’

In new research, scientists have redrawn the boundaries of our planet’s architecture, Andy Gregory reports

Scientists have created a new model of the Earth’s tectonic plates (Dr Derrick Hasterok, University of Adelaide)

New scientific models mapping the Earth’s tectonic plates could help to sharpen our collective understanding of natural disasters like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, scientists have said.

The parts of the planet’s crust which form our modern continents are thought to have taken shape billions of years ago, and their resulting shifts – including the formation the first supercontinent, known as Vaalbara, to the break-up of Pangea 65 million years ago – are vital our understanding of the Earth’s modern architecture.

But scientists’ standard models of the Earth’s plates – those used in classrooms and geology textbooks – have not been updated since 2003, according to Dr Derrick Hasterok, of the University of Adelaide’s department of earth sciences.