• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Scientists Found Two Gigantic Structures Deep Within The Earth. They Could Be The Remains Of An Ancient Planet

June 6, 2023 by Deborah Bloomfield

Lying beneath Africa and the Pacific in the lowermost part of the Earth’s mantle, surrounding the Earth’s core, there are two gigantic blobs that occupy around three to nine percent of the volume of the Earth. 

There are of course no direct ways of seeing the Earth’s core, at least without being burned to a crisp or fighting your way through the mole people. The deepest hole we’ve ever dug – sweetly dubbed the “entrance to hell” – reached 12,263 meters (40,230 feet), still a long way from breaking through the Earth’s crust to the layers beneath. However, we can look under the surface pretty effectively by utilizing earthquakes in a technique known as seismic tomography.

Advertisement

When earthquakes occur, waves of energy are sent out in all directions. By measuring the tremors from several locations at the surface, scientists can create a map of the Earth’s interior. Since rocks and liquids within the Earth are of different densities, the waves move through them at different speeds, allowing geologists to figure out what type of material the waves are going through.

When this technique was new, the two large and strange structures were found, known as large low shear velocity provinces (LLSVPs). In these areas, generally called “blobs”, waves travel more slowly than through the surrounding lower mantle. Under Africa, the area known as “Tuzo” is thought to be about 800 kilometers (497 miles) in height, or about 90 Mount Everests.



So, what are they? Unfortunately, we still aren’t entirely sure, though we have a few sound ideas. Given that the objects are denser than the surrounding mantle, it’s assumed that they are made of a different material, though we cannot tell exactly what it is – nor the exact density – based on seismic tomography data alone.

Advertisement

A leading hypothesis is that the LLSVPs are piles of oceanic crust that have been subducted and accumulated over billions of years. Another slightly more fun theory is that the pieces are chunks of an ancient planet. 

Theia is a hypothetical Mars-sized planet that hit Earth around 4.5 billion years ago, throwing off enough rock to form the Moon. It has been suggested that the blobs are in fact pieces of Theia itself: denser mantle from the proto-planet that got mixed in with Earth’s during the collision. In 2021, a team modeled simulations of the scenario, finding that Theia’s mantle could survive if it were only 1.5 to 3.5 percent denser. 

Though we don’t know for certain what the blobs are, and will never see them directly, techniques for investigating beneath our feet are continually improving. Hopefully it is only a matter of time before we can refer to them by what they are, rather than mysterious behemoth blobs lurking deep beneath our feet. 

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Riley Moss returns two INTs for scores as No. 18 Iowa routs No. 17 Indiana
  2. Dutch PM Rutte to invite Britain to join defence deal with EU -The Times
  3. Singapore parliament to debate bill to tackle foreign interference
  4. How Ancient Gondwanan Life Survived Ice Ages In Antarctica

Source Link: Scientists Found Two Gigantic Structures Deep Within The Earth. They Could Be The Remains Of An Ancient Planet

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • These Little Birds Are All But Extinct – But There Is Still Time To Save Them
  • The Three Types Of Female Orgasm
  • Elon Musk Has Announced His Bombastic Plan To Get Humans To Mars
  • China Unveils World’s Largest Offshore Wind Turbine With Hub Height Of 185 Meters
  • Oldest Fingerprint, AI Decoding Wolf Language, And Injecting Life On Other Worlds?
  • “There Are Glimmers Of Hope”: Search For One Of The World’s Most Endangered Pigeons Just Scored A Big Win
  • Earth Has A 1-In-100,000 Chance Of Being Ejected From The Solar System Due To A Passing Star
  • “Necrobotics” Turns Dead Spider Corpses Into Biohybrid Robots
  • Why Even Traveling Close To The Speed Of Light Is So Hard
  • Peer Into The Universe’s Distant Past Thanks To JWST’s Longest-Exposure Photo Yet
  • First Evidence For Chubby Cheeks In Dinosaurs Challenges Our Understanding Of How They Chewed
  • The 2021 “Heat Dome” Killed Her Mother. Now, She’s Suing The Oil Companies Responsible
  • Two Of The Most Destructive Termites Got It On, Sparking Hybrid Threat In Florida
  • The Mad Gasser of Mattoon: A Story Of Anxiety And Hysteria In America’s Heartland
  • Tourists Swimming With Orcas In Mexico As Tour Guides Exploit Legal Loopholes
  • Hells Canyon, The Deepest River Gorge In The US, Was Created Incredibly Recently
  • It’s The Perfect Time Of Year To See Noctilucent Clouds In The Twilight Skies
  • Hawaiian Volcanoes Have Erupted With Gold That Came From Earth’s Core
  • Why Do Some Australian Beaches Have Vinegar Stations?
  • 2-Year-Old Who “Loves A Challenge” Becomes Youngest Ever Member Of Mensa
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version