Scientists found new evidence that Earth’s crust is peeling underneath the Sierra Nevada in California. The process might be how the continents formed, they say.

There were once six glaciers in the Sierra Nevada de Mérida mountain range of Venezuela. Five of them had vanished by 2011. Since then, the Humboldt Glacier, also known as La Corona, stood alone.

Schulte-Pelkum was already studying the Sierra Nevada's peculiar rock footprint, which had shown deep rock deformations within the same area.Using the newfound data, the researchers imaged the ...