Corn Syrup Experiment Mimics Yellowstone Magma Plume

CREDIT: Nina B

Experiments with plain old corn syrup have revealed that giant jets of magmarising up from near the Earth's core might explain supervolcanic activity seen at Yellowstone.

Mantle plumes, as these jets are called, are thought to be titanic pillars of hot molten rock that penetrate overlying material like a blowtorch. As the tectonic plates that make up Earth's surface drift over the plumes, lines of volcanoes are born. Most volcanoes are found near the edges of tectonic plates that are violently either pushing or pulling at each other, but mantle plumes were thought up as a way to explain the existence of volcanic chains such as the Hawaiian Islands, which lie far away from the borders of tectonic plates.

Congestion in the Earth's mantle

The Earth is dynamic. What we perceive as solid ground beneath our feet, is in reality constantly changing. In the space of a year Africa and America are drifting apart at the back of the Middle Atlantic for some centimeters while the floor of the Pacific Ocean is subducted underneath the South American Continent. "In 100 million years' time Africa will be pulled apart and North Australia will be at the equator," says Prof.

Биологи обнаружили под океанским дном необычную жизнь

Океаническая кора — это тип земной коры, которая находится на дне океана. Она образовывается вследствие столкновения тектонических плит, когда расплавленная лава соединяется с морской водой и застывает. Такая кора покрывает 60% земной поверхности и, как выяснилось, является естественной средой обитания для необычных микроорганизмов.

В 2004 году группа учёных во главе с геомикробиологом из Орхусского университета Марком Левером (Mark Lever) отправилась изучать океаническую кору, находящуюся в проливе Хуан-де-Фука. Левер отмечает, что этот объект заинтересовал не только геологов, но и микробиологов.

Видео Фото Эксперт: Земля не раскололась, а эволюционирует

Изучая последствия апрельского землетрясения на Суматре, ученые выяснили: одна из восьми тектонических плит Земли треснула. О том, как этот раскол отразится на человечестве, в студии программы "Утро России" рассказал ученый Алексей Собисевич.

По словам Алексея Собисевича, землетрясение на Суматре было очень необычным. В истории инструментальных наблюдений аналогичных не случалось. Уникальность этого явления в том, что оно произошло не в зоне столкновения литосферных плит, как это обычно бывает, а внутри плиты.

Big quake was part of crustal plate breakup

Seismologists have known for years that the Indo-Australian plate of Earth's crust is slowly breaking apart, but they saw it in action last April when at least four faults broke in a magnitude-8.7 earthquake that may be the largest of its type ever recorded.

The great Indian Ocean quake of April 11, 2012 previously was reported as 8.6 magnitude, and the new estimate means the quake was 40 percent larger than had been believed, scientists from the University of Utah and University of California, Santa Cruz, report in the Sept. 27 issue of the journal Nature.

Earth’s plates move slower than thought

The mystery of erratic changes in the history of Earth’s past and current plate motions has been cracked by academics from The Australian National University.

Dr Giampiero Iaffaldano, from the Research School of Earth Sciences in the ANU College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, led a team that found true changes in plate motions occur on timescales no shorter than a few million years.

Plate tectonics cretaceous

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UCLA scientist discovers plate tectonics on Mars

For years, many scientists had thought that plate tectonics existed nowhere in our solar system but on Earth. Now, a UCLA scientist has discovered that the geological phenomenon, which involves the movement of huge crustal plates beneath a planet's surface, also exists on Mars.

"Mars is at a primitive stage of plate tectonics. It gives us a glimpse of how the early Earth may have looked and may help us understand how plate tectonics began on Earth," said An Yin, a UCLA professor of Earth and space sciences and the sole author of the new research.

Serious Issues with Plate Tectonics

David Pratt’s publication in the year 2000 enumerates multiple problems affecting the theory of plate tectonics and seafloor spreading.

The above schematic of Alaska reveals regions of rock strata that appear to have “accreted” to an original craton. Southern Alaska is composed of fragments in all shapes and sizes, each one telling its own tale. They are all “exotic terranes”, formed at different places and times. How they were transported to their present location, and why some are rotated with respect to adjoining terranes is a mystery.