Jets of Molten Rock Push Earth's Tectonic Plates

 Giant fountains of hot rock under central Africa and the central Pacific that have apparently remained stationary for at least 250 million years are helping drive the movements of the massive tectonic plates making up Earth's surface, researchers say.

Below the rocky layer that makes up Earth's outermost skin, known as the lithosphere, is the searing hot rock of the mantle layer. The way this viscous rock flows drives movements in Earth's surface, resulting in the birth and death of supercontinents and the building of mountains when tectonic plates smash together.

Pinpointing what patterns might exist in mantle flow has proved difficult because of uncertainty in how to interpret scans of the inner Earth. Now researchers find they can deduce mantle flow patterns through another route — by looking at the way tectonic plates have drifted over the eons, as this drift is based on how the viscous innards of the planet have flowed.  LiveScience