Earth’s mantle It is a layer of Earth about 2,900 km thick between the planet’s crust and core. About 70 percent. The exact volume of Earth’s material in the mantle.
The structures examined are called “Large Low Cut Velocity Proofs (LLSVPs)“And the size of a continent, its height is a hundred times higher than Mount Everest. One spot below Africaand the other under The Pacific Ocean.
Scientists learned what these things look like by examining them seismic waves. On the basis of the degree of passage of these waves through the rocks, it is possible to determine, among other things, their type, density or layer thickness.
Qian Yuan from Arizona State University and Mingming Li From the School of Earth and Space Exploration, among others, he conducted specialized analyzes of geodynamic modeling. Determine the maximum spot height, size, and density. The results were published in the journal natural earth sciences.
In their research, they found that the patch under Africa is thicker than the patch under the Pacific Ocean. According to the researchers, this indicates a lower stability of the first structure (lower density). This may also indicate a different internal configuration different evolution.
“African LLVPs It may have grown geologically recently. This may explain the surface elevation and intense volcanic movement in East Africa,” says Mingming Li.
In contrast, Yuan adds: “Our set of seismic analysis and geodynamic modeling results provide new vision In the nature of the largest structures of the Earth and their interaction with the surrounding mantle. This work has far-reaching implications for scientists trying to understand the current state and evolution of the deep mantle structure and the nature of convection.
There is also a hypothesis that the studied objects are the remains of a previous collision of the Earth with another planet.
Despite new research, these structures are still poorly understood and provide more questions than they answer about the evolution of our planet.
