The formation of the oceans has historically been the result of the Marine background expansion. The tectonic plates are separated and the magma ascends from the mantle, creating new ocean cortex. However, what is currently happening under Africa challenge completely that traditional process.
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A recent study published in the scientific journal Nature Geoscience documents the possible birth of an ocean, but not on the earth’s surface, but in the depths of the planet. There, in the Afar region, in the Horn of Africaa mysterious lava ocean would be forming inside the terrestrial mantle.
This area has intrigued geologists for decades for a unique reason: it is one of the few places in the world where Three tectonic plates converge. In this “triple point” the main Ethiopian rift, the Rift of the Red Sea and the Rift of the Gulf of Adén, causing a intense Geological activity
Using advanced statistical models and combining new data with information geochemistry and previous geophysicsthe scientists concluded that the Afar region is fed by the emergence of the mantle that is not only spatially diverse, but also dynamic and pulsating. This variability controls both the composition and the amount of molten material which is generated in the three arms of the rift system.
The key finding was made by a team of the Southampton Universitywhich identified what they describe as “rhythmic pulses” of molten rock ascending from inside the planet, as if the continent had a geological beat. These pulses would be progressively weakening the earth’s crust In East Africa, opening the way to a new ocean basin.
Dr. Emma Watts, the main author of the study, explained: “We have discovered that the mantle under Afar is not uniform or static. It has pulsationsand these transport different chemical firms that help us understand how and why The region is fracturing.”
For years, scientists suspected that a Unique geological phenomenon. Today, thanks to this investigation, they finally have concrete evidence that a New Ocean It could be born from the depths of the earth.
