Geologists have long believed that tectonic plates move because they are dragged down by their weight. and that a softer, warmer layer called the asthenosphere serves as a passive lubricant.
But recently, a team of geologists from the University of Houston (UH) discovered that the diaper actually flows vigorously, moving fast enough to cause the plates to move.
Researchers at UH’s Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics have observed minute changes in the gravitational pull detected by satellite in the Caribbean and in CAT scan-like mantle tomography images of its asthenosphere. They found a hot “river of rocks” flowing from the Pacific Ocean through a gateway below Central America and into the middle of the Caribbean Sea..
This underground “river of rocks” began to flow about eight million years ago., when the gateway to Central America opened, lifting the overlying seabed several hundred feet and tilting northeast toward the Lesser Antilles.
Take a dive into the active asthenospheric flow under the Caribbeanhttps://t.co/9VJzc3SZws
— Nature Communications (@NatureComms) March 12, 2021
Excellent discoveries in geology
“Without the additional support generated by this flow in the asthenosphere, parts of Central America would still be below sea level.. The Atlantic and Pacific Oceans would thus be connected without the need for the Panama Canalsaid study co-author Lorenzo Colli, assistant professor of geophysics, geodynamics and mantle structure in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.
These findings have implications for understanding the shape of the Earth’s surface, its evolution over time through the appearance and disappearance of shallow seas., land bridges and forces that move tectonic plates and cause earthquakes.
Another fascinating discovery, according to the researchers, is that asthenosphere moves 15 cm per year, which is three times faster than an average plaque.
“This challenges the top-down notion that subduction is always the driver,” said Jonny Wu, study co-author and assistant professor of structural geology, tectonics and mantle structure.
“The moving plates do it like a hockey puck and are lubricated from the bottom. Instead, we find that the hockey table imposes its own currents on the moving puck, creating a bottom-up motion that doesn’t ‘has not been well recognized, and this is quantified here, ”Wu added.
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