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Geologists found an ancient seafloor trapped deep beneath Earth's mantle, which could solve many previous puzzling observations.
The Earth's rigid outer shell doesn't get as much attention as it should.
Discover the secret, plastic realm below Earth's surface: the asthenosphere.
The mantle is a whopping 2,900 km (1,802 miles) thick, and it's by far the thickest layer of the Earth.
We're still just scractching the surface of the planet.
Ancient Egyptians believed the Nile was eternal -- and they may have been on to something.
The magma has remained in place since dawn of our planet.
We didn't know volcanoes can form in this way.
Tectonics^2.
For once, it's not something to do with global warming, phew!
Diamonds are a geologist's best friends.
Water isn't only skin deep.
Most people tend to think of the Earth in terms of crust, mantle and core, and while those are indeed the largest "layers" (you can't properly call the mantle a layer though), each one of them is made from other, thinner layers. Now, researchers from the University of Utah have identified another one of these thinner layers, 930 miles beneath our feet.
A new study may have finally found where Earth’s water came from. There are currently two competing theories, with one claiming that our planet generated its own water geologically, while the other suggests that water was brought by icy comets or asteroids from outside. A new study concluded that most of the water we see […]
What’s the most common mineral on Earth? Is it quartz, limestone? Maybe olivine? Well, if you take into consideration the entire planet, the most common mineral would be something known as silicate-perovskite – but now, that mineral finally has a name. On June 2, bridgmanite was approved as the formal name for silicate-perovskite – possibly of the Earth’s […]
The first ever terrestrial discovery of ringwoodite seems to confirm the existence of massive amounts of water hundreds of kilometers below the Earth’s surface. Let me explain how. Under pressure Ringwoodite is a high-pressure polymorph of olivine; it’s basically olivine, but with a different crystal structure. The mineral is thought to exist in large quantities […]
Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have found a layer of liquefied molten rock in Earth’s mantle that may be acting as a lubricant for the sliding motions of the planet’s tectonic plates. This discovery has very far reaching implications, which can solve some of the long standing geological puzzles, as […]
Magma forms much deeper than geologists previously believed, according to a new study conducted by Rice University. Magma and Crust The group led by geologist Rajdeep Dasgupta put very small samples of peridotite under very large pressures, to find out if the rock can liquify, at least in small amounts, as deep as 250 […]
The Japanese scientific deep sea vessel Chikyu managed to set a new world record by drilling down to over 2.200 meters below the seafloor, obtaining samples from Shimokita Peninsula of Japan in the northwest Pacific Ocean. Drilling for science Whenever you hear about drilling, it’s almost always about oil. Given the humongous amount of oil […]
Ever since researchers started studying the Earth’s spin, they noticed that the spin isn’t perfect. Many believe this is a result of the different elements in the Earth’s core, mantle and crust, which have different densities and generate different friction. Most researchers studying this wobble agreed that the mantle would have to respond to the […]
It wasn’t just a devastating asteroid that killed off all the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Scientists from Boston University now claim that a massive eruption of lava fronts around the world, coinciding with the asteroid impact, sealed their fate forever. The controversial theory is betting on two unusually hot blobs of mantle 1,700 miles […]
Scientists have for the first time determined the actual permeability of the asthenosphere in Earth’s upper mantle, which is basically responsible for how fast the melt rises towards the surface of the earth, and the results were surprising to say the least. Researchers found that it actually moves 25 times faster than previously assumed, which […]
