DJ Earth
Scientists have discovered a heartbeat-like pulse that comes from inside the Earth below the African continent, and they believe that one day they will tear the continent to pieces.
In a new study published today in the Journal Natural Earth ScienceA team of European and African scientists explained how they used chemical characteristics to examine the heartbeat of this inner Earth, explaining that molten mantle blocks (the layer of rock found between the Earth's surface and core) are surging together through rift areas or weak areas of volcanoes, with magma most likely to break the carapace of our planet.
These internal tides have settled into the rhythmic burst of pulse plumes. This effectively means that the outbreak of molten rock is pushing towards the shell of the African continent, which for millions of years could have caused the continent to tear apart, making room for the new ocean basin.
The researchers focused on the distant regions of Ethiopia, a volcanic region located in multiple rift valley areas, collecting and analyzing about 130 volcanic rock samples.
“We found that the mantle below the distance is not uniform or fixed,” Emma Watts, a geologist at Swansea University and lead author of the study, said in a statement. “Its pulses, these pulses have different chemical characteristics.”
A deep understanding
As Independent Note that this study is important because although scientists have believed that the mantle in the region was pushed towards the crust and caused it to expand, they do not fully know why.
The new study provides scientists with a deeper understanding of the process. More importantly, it reveals that the Earth's plate actually has a huge impact on the movement of molten magma located below it.
“These pulses appear to vary depending on the thickness of the plate and how fast it is,” Tom Gernon, a geologist at Southampton University, said in a statement. “In faster cracks like the Red Sea, the pulses are more efficient and more regularly, passing through narrow arteries like pulses.”
Excitingly, researchers believe that their discovery will serve as how we understand and study volcanic activity, the dynamic internal functioning of our planet, and what the activities discovered today mean for the future of the planet.
“This has profound implications,” Derek Keir, professor of geosciences at the University of Southampton and co-author of the study, said in a statement, “about how we explain ground volcanism, seismic activity and the process of continental dismantling.”
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