Mysterious structure surrounding the Earth’s core: the surprising scientific discovery

The interior of the Earth still offers objects unknown to human knowledge, although their number is becoming fewer and fewer. The most recent discovery was solved The layer between the mantle and the core. According to research published in Advancement of science By a team led by the University of Alabama (UA), it is a sunken ocean floor.

It is always the origin of the Ultra Low Velocity Zone (ULVZ). It has been a topic of debate among scholars for decades. Due to the difficulty of obtaining high-quality images of the area, this area was previously known only in isolated spots. Now, thanks to global-scale seismic images of the Earth’s interior, researchers have concluded that this layer of ancient ocean floor may cover the boundary between the core and mantle.

“Seismic investigations like ours provide high-resolution images of the internal structure of our planet We have discovered that this structure is much more complex than we previously thought.“Samantha Hansen, lead author of the study and professor of geosciences at the University of Arizona, said This statement.

[El núcleo interno de la Tierra se ha detenido y podría estar invirtiéndose: la alerta de los científicos]

The research team buried a network of seismic sensors in Antarctica, like a medical scanner, to generate an image of the interior of the Earth’s southern hemisphere. “By analyzing thousands of seismic records from Antarctica, our high-resolution imaging method We detected extremely low velocity anomalous areas in all the places we surveyed“Compared to the thickness of the layers that dominate the Earth, this ocean floor is ‘as thin as a pencil,'” explains Edward Garnero, one of the study’s authors.

The thickness of the material ranges from a few to tens of kilometers. “This indicates that we see mountains in the heart, even in some places Five times higher than Mount Everestsays Garnero. Researchers believe that because of the slow properties of ULZV seismic waves at their varying heights, the layer was likely formed from ancient oceanic crust, buried for millions of years in what are known as subduction zones.

They suggest that too It can cover the entire core of the EarthTaking into account the way continents move slowly over time. However, the authors of the above-mentioned study admit that further seismic investigations are still needed to determine whether it is valid.

However, this discovery gives us a better idea of ​​how heat escapes from the Earth’s interior in thin regions and escapes through the mantle. Materials from ancient ocean floors are also present It can return to the surface through volcanic eruptions. For this reason, understanding the formation of the core-mantle boundary on a large scale is complex. “This research provides important links between the Earth’s surface, its deep structure, and the global processes that drive our planet,” Hansen concludes.