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Geological studies continue to confirm that the processes that ensure Earth’s habitability have operated since shortly after Earth formed. The large-scale motion of Earth’s seismic plates produces the continental crust where the bulk of Earth’s mammals live. Recent studies of rocks in Greenland by an international team of geologists demonstrate that such plate tectonics have been in operation since at least 3.8 billion years ago and continue to operate today. Over long periods of time, the less-dense materials float to the top of the more-dense mantle rocks to form the continental crust that prevents Earth from being a water world. If these processes had started too late or ended too early, inadequate continental crust would exist to support the abundant life that appears unique to Earth. Such fine-tuning comports well with the idea of a supernatural Creator working to prepare and sustain a planet capable of long-standing, abundant, and complex life.

Support for RTB’s creation model grows as scientists gain understanding of the heat and helium transport through the Earth. One outstanding issue in understanding Earth’s interior relates to whether mixing in the mantle operates over the whole mantle or in segregated layers. Although scientists favor the simple, whole-mantle convection model, they have not been able to reconcile the model with measurements of the helium and heat flux at Earth’s surface. However, a team of geophysicists shows how aquifer layers in the crust greatly reduce the flux of helium relative to heat, reconciling whole-mantle convection models with field measurements. As scientists’ model of Earth’s interior processes increases in explanatory power and detail, the evidence for RTB’s creation model also increases.