News From the Field
Twenty-year Study Yields Precise Model of Tectonic-plate Movements

March 22, 2010

A new model of the Earth, 20 years in the making, describes a dynamic 3-D puzzle of planetary proportions. Created by University of Wisconsin-Madison geophysicist Chuck DeMets and long-time collaborators Richard Gordon of Rice University and Donald Argus of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the model offers a precise description of the relative movements of 25 interlocking tectonic plates that account for 97 percent of the Earth's surface. Full Story

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University of Wisconsin-Madison

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