Earth's internal heat, fueled by radioactivity, provides the energy for plate tectonics and continental drift, mountain building, and earthquakes.

地球内部因放射而产生的热量为板块运动、大陆漂移、造山运动和地震提供了能量。

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Why this elaborate analogy with plate tectonics and continental drift?

为什么要煞费苦心地拿板块学说和大陆漂移来进行类比？

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After gorging on bear meat, the expedition's scientists bring back evidence that helps prove the controversial theory of continental drift, which gives rise in due course to the science of plate tectonics, which explains why it was that Krakatoa blew itself up--and will do so again, in eons hence.

FORBES: Don't Go Near The Volcano

Plate tectonics, the formation of faults and the moving of the continental crust over a molten interior, is a characteristic unique to Earth and it meant that minerals evolved far beyond those on any other planet in the Solar System.

ECONOMIST: Minerals