Alec Brenner on When Tectonic Plates First Moved

A key development in the history of the early Earth is the formation of lithospheric plates that move independently of one another. In this episode, Brenner describes how he used paleomagnetic methods to detect relative motion between two ancient cratons, the East Pilbara and the Kaapvaal, 3.5 billion years ago. This is a full billion years earlier than any previous such detection, and it enables us to narrow down the kind of tectonics operating in the Paleoarchean. Of the candidate regimes, episodic subduction models fit his data best. Brenner is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Earth & Planetary Science at Yale University.

You can listen to Alec Brenner on When Tectonic Plates First Moved online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Alec Brenner on When Tectonic Plates First Moved is an episode from Geology Bites By Oliver Strimpel by Oliver Strimpel.

This episode is 00:28:55 long.

This episode was published on Apr 30, 2026.

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