Geoscientists Unlock the Mystery: Why We Haven’t Met Aliens Yet

Researchers suggest that the scarcity of oceans, continents, and long-term plate tectonics on exoplanets likely explains the rarity of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations, challenging the estimates provided by the Drake equation and addressing the Fermi paradox.

New research by University of Texas at Dallas geoscientist Dr. Robert Stern and a colleague suggests a geological explanation for why conclusive evidence for advanced extraterrestrial (ET) civilizations has not been found, even though the Drake equation predicts that there should be many such civilizations in our galaxy capable of communicating with us.

In a study published recently 12 in the journal Scientific Reports, Stern and Dr. Taras Gerya, a professor of Earth sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, propose that the presence of oceans and continents, as well as long-term plate tectonics, on life-bearing planets is essential for the evolution of active, communicative civilizations (ACCs).