Plate tectonics just a stage in Earth’s life cycle
Simulation shows crust to stop shifting in 5 billion years

TECTONIC TIMETABLE Plate tectonics will grind to a halt in a few billion years, researchers predict. A computer simulation calculated how heat flows through a planet’s interior, including this snapshot during a period of active plate tectonics.
C. O’Neill et al/Phys. Earth Plan. Int. 2016