“More complex than previously assumed” – it seems that there are “mountains” on the Earth’s core

It seems that a research team from the United States of America is solving a mystery about the Earth’s interior that has been preoccupying geologists for years.

Tuscaloosa – With the help of seismic waves, researchers investigate the structure of our planet and are constantly faced with surprises. Recently, a research team from China found that the Earth’s inner core no longer rotates relative to the Earth’s mantle. Another research group found a metal ball in the ground. A research team from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa has now published a study that provides new insights into the Earth’s structure.

The research team, led by Samantha Hansen, examined so-called ultra-low velocity zones (ULVZs) in the region between Earth’s mantle and Earth’s core. These are the areas where seismic waves significantly slow down and become slower. Since the discovery of this phenomenon, geologists all over the world have been studying it – but its origin has not yet been clarified.

A look inside our planet: Earth’s oceanic crust forms the “mountains” on Earth’s mantle

In their studies, the in the journal Science advances published The authors on Hansen hypothesize that the material in the ULVZs is material that was once the oceanic crust, that is, the ocean floor. The ocean floor forms at mid-ocean ridges where tectonic plates drift apart. At subduction zones, one continental plate submerges beneath the other – and the “old” ocean floor returns to the Earth’s mantle. But what happens to Earth’s oceanic crust when it reaches the mantle has not been clear before.

The study Hansen and her team are now conducting appears to provide an answer: At least some material sinks to the bottom of the mantle and collects around Earth’s core. “Seismic surveys like ours provide the highest resolution representation of our planet’s internal structures, and we find that this structure is much more complex than previously thought,” explains lead author Hansen in a statement from her university. – Author Edward Garnero adds: “We see mountains in the heart of the earth, in some places they are five times higher than Mount Everest.”

Subterranean “mountains” on the Earth’s mantle may have an important meaning

The research team hypothesizes that the ULVZs consist of oceanic crust deposited below subduction zones. “Our research makes important links between the structure of Earth’s surface and depth and the general processes that move our planet,” Hansen confirms. According to the researchers, subterranean “mountains” could play an important role in how heat escapes from Earth’s interior. (unpaid bill)