The mystery of the gravitational hole at the bottom of the Indian Ocean has been confusing scientists for years. Photo/Live Science
NEW DELHI – Mystery gravity hole at the bottom Indian Ocean , has been puzzling scientists for many years. The gravity hole known as the Lower Indian Ocean Geoid (IOGL) is a 3 million square kilometer depression about 1,200 kilometers southwest of India.
Compared to the surrounding area, low gravity was so weak that the water layer had been ripped away. This condition makes the sea level above the hole 106 meters lower than the global average.
Scientists are trying to identify the origins of the deep gravitational holes in the Indian Ocean caused by low-density magma pushed up by ancient plates beneath the ocean. The scientists’ research was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters on May 5, 2023.
“The origin of this inferior geoid is very confusing. Various theories have been proposed to explain this negative geoid anomaly. However, it is not yet clear how this low geoid appeared,” the researchers wrote, quoted by SINDOnews from the Live Science page, Saturday (15/7/2023).
To search for potential answers, the researchers used 19 computer models that simulated the movement of mantle and plate tectonics in the region over 140 million years. They then compared with simulations of six models of low geoid formation.
From the model, it is known that hot magma bursts with low density rising to replace material with higher density. This condition reduces its mass and weakens its gravity.
Bernhart Steinberger, a geodynamics researcher at the German Research Center for Geosciences GFZ, said the magmatic eruption known as the African blob lies 1,000 km west under the African Continent. The African plume is a dense bubble of crystallized material in the African mantle the size of a continent and 100 times taller than Mount Everest.
Finally, about 20 million years ago, the sinking Tethyan plate replaced some of the magma trapped in the African plume to form the blob. “Together with the formation of mantle structures around the lower geoid, this activity is responsible for the formation of this negative geoid anomaly,” the researchers wrote.
(wib)
2023-07-15 12:19:52
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