The researcher discovers a previously unknown tectonic plate

A previous tectonic plate has almost completely disappeared into the Earth’s mantle. But a researcher located the remains and made a new discovery.

Utrecht – If you look at the long-term evolution of the Earth, you will find that something is constantly moving on our planet: seas arise and disappear, continents form and break apart. The former continents are now barely visible and can only be traced by experts. Now a research team led by geologist Susanna van de Lagemaat (Utrecht University) has made an important discovery: the team has reconstructed a former giant tectonic plate. The oceanic plate called Pontus was once the size of a quarter of the Pacific Ocean.

But today, much of Pontos has disappeared into the Earth’s mantle, leaving well-hidden remnants of plate tectonics. Some of it sank into the Earth’s mantle through a mechanism called subduction, leaving only small pieces on the surface. Van de Lagemaat was studying the most complex tectonic zone on Earth when she found the first evidence of Pontos.

Geological discovery: The researcher discovered a huge oceanic plate

“The Philippines lies at a complex intersection between different plate systems,” Van de Lagemaat explains in one of them notice Their university. “The area consists almost entirely of oceanic crust, but some parts lie above sea level and contain rocks of very different ages.”

First, the researcher used geological data to reconstruct current plate movement in the area between Japan and the Philippines. “We also did fieldwork in northern Borneo, where we found the most important piece of the puzzle,” says van de Lagemaat. “We thought we were dealing with the remains of a lost record that we already knew about,” the researcher recalls. “But our magnetic laboratory studies on these rocks showed that our discoveries originally came from a plate located farther north, and must be the remains of another, previously unknown plate.”

The remains of a huge tectonic plate have been found in Borneo

Her doctoral supervisor, Douwe van Hinsbergen, says: “Eleven years ago we thought that the remains of Pontus could be in northern Japan, but since then we have refuted this theory.” The Ring of Fire would have discovered the Pontus record, says van Hinsbergen. “These included rocks we examined in Borneo.”

The research team also discovered parts of tectonic plates on the Philippine island of Palawan and in the South China Sea. The study showed that a single, connected tectonic system once extended from southern Japan to New Zealand In the specialized magazine Gondwana research published had become. This system must have existed for at least 150 million years, and this is also a new discovery. (unpaid bill)