Wednesday, January 15, 2025
https://youtu.be/-VWmlCiNNnM
Scientists have discovered mysterious blobs, known as large low-shear-velocity provinces (LLVPs), deep within Earth's mantle where seismic waves move more slowly. These blobs, located beneath Africa and the Pacific Ocean, make up about 4% of the mantle. One theory suggests that these blobs may be remnants of a Mars-sized protoplanet that collided with Earth 4.5 billion years ago, forming the moon. This impact would have melted the upper half of Earth's mantle, allowing a dense chunk of the impactor to be captured by the solid lower mantle. This chunk would have sunk and solidified, stabilizing near the core-mantle boundary due to its higher density.
A new imaging technique called full-waveform inversion has revealed even more of these mysterious blobs in unexpected locations throughout Earth's mantle. While some researchers believe these blobs could be subducted slabs of ancient Earth crust, others propose they might be leftover material from the mantle's formation or dense material that has grown within the mantle. More research is needed to determine the exact nature of these blobs, which have been dubbed "sunken worlds". Comparing volcanic rocks from areas above the blobs with lunar rocks could help determine if they share a common origin, potentially supporting the protoplanet theory.
Sources:
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/geology/scientists-discover-sunken-worlds-hidden-deep-within-earths-mantle-that-shouldnt-be-there
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/geology/a-protoplanet-that-created-the-moon-may-be-hiding-deep-inside-earth
P. Geo. Ricardo A Valls, M. Sc. and Geo Gadfly
Valls Geoconsultant
ORCID ID- https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5421-0914
Scopus Author ID: 7003369619/35335510700
ResearcherID: S-6604-2018
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