IPS researcher Jellinek studies planetary plate tectonics

May 26, 2007

IPS faculty member Mark Jellinek has published a paper in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters that discusses why Earth is currently the only planet on which plate tectonics is operating. In particular they show that, while Moon and Mercury have always been in a situation called a 'stagnent lid', it is likely that Venus and perhaps Mars might have been in a different regime in the past, and thus active plate motions on their surface.

See a Nature Geosciences review for additional information.