Scientists record continental displacement A U.S.-led
international team of scientists says it has, for the first
time, recorded a geological event that is considered key in
shaping the Earth’s crust. Led by Purdue University Professor
Eric Calais, the researchers said they measured ground
displacements as two African tectonic plates moved apart and
molten rock pushed its way toward the surface during the first
so-called dyking event ever recorded within the planet’s
continental crust. Calais said the event left a wall of magma 6
miles long and 5 feet wide wedged between the two plates. While
dyking events have been reported in the thin oceanic crust, they
had never been directly observed and quantified in the thicker
areas of the planet’s shell, Calais said. The existence of the
events provides a key element of how the Earth’s rigid outer
shell — the lithosphere — breaks apart and moves. Although the
known forces pushing and pulling on continents are not powerful
enough to break them apart, repeated dyking e