by Alexander Liskin

February 17, 2019

from SputnikNews Website

© Sputnik / Alexander Liskin

While the finding does not support

the Hollow Earth Theory,

it does provide some interesting insights

into geology and the history of the Earth...
 

Mountains larger than Mount Everest and rougher than Tibet likely lie deep beneath Earth's surface, a recently published study has revealed.

Researchers from the Institute of Geodesy and Geophysics in China and at Princeton University in the US state of New Jersey, have used seismic-wave data from a 1994 massive earthquake in Bolivia to examine a layer of rock located some 660 kilometers beneath the Earth's surface, according to Science Daily.

A very strong powerful earthquake is necessary for this type of research, the study team noted, and the Bolivian earthquake is the second-strongest earthquake ever recorded.

"You want a big, deep earthquake to get the whole planet to shake," said Jessica Irving, an assistant professor of geosciences.

According to Jessica Irving, the earthquake had to be deep, a kind which,

"instead of frittering away their energy in the crust, can get the whole mantle going," cited by Sciencedaily.com.

The layer of rock, whose existence was previously known to seismologists, has no official name and is usually referred to as the 660-km or the 410-mile boundary.

In order to examine the boundary, researchers used the property of waves to bounce and bend around boundaries, Science Daily writes.

Much like people can see objects because they reflect and scatter light waves, seismic waves are reflected from underground inconsistencies.

Homogenous spans of rock are transparent to such waves - similar to how glass is transparent to our eyes, according to researchers.

The study ran the 1994 data through Princeton's Tiger supercomputer cluster to simulate the complicated behavior of scattering waves and were shocked when the model revealed just how rough the underground terrain is.

While the method does not allow for precise measurement, researchers nonetheless believe that the underground anomalies are of much larger dimensions than on the surface.

"In other words, stronger topography than the Rocky Mountains or the Appalachians is present at the 660-km boundary," noted research collaborator Wenbo Wu.

 

"They find that Earth's deep layers are just as complicated as what we observe at the surface," said seismologist Christine Houser, an assistant professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology who was not involved in the study.

"To find 2-mile (1-3 km) elevation changes on a boundary that is over 400 miles (660 km) deep using waves that travel through the entire Earth and back is an inspiring feat," Houser noted.

The team's finding provides better insight into the structure of Earth's mantle, Science Daily writes.

For years, scientists debated the importance of the 660-km boundary and whether it influences thermal convection inside our planet. Earlier observations have suggested that the two layers of the Earth's mantle are either chemically homogenous or chemically dissimilar.

New research results may bring those divergent observations together and provide insight into processes that have led to the mantle's current state.



 

Huge Earthquake in Bolivia reveals...

Vast Underground Mountain Range

...bigger than anything on Earth's Surface
by Strange Sounds

February 16, 2019

from StrangeSounds Website
 

Scientists were able to determine the roughness

at the top and bottom of the transition zone,

a layer within the mantle, using scattered earthquake waves.

They found that the top of the transition zone,

a layer located 410 kilometers down, is mostly smooth,

but the base of the transition zone, 660 km down,

in some places is much rougher than the global surface average.

"In other words, stronger topography than the Rocky Mountains

or the Appalachians is present at the 660-km boundary."
 

Classic sci-fi writer Jules Verne once imagined a whole subterranean landscape deep inside the planet, complete with lost prehistoric species and plant life.

The book was aptly titled Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

Now, a new research is revealing features in the underworld resembling structures on the surface.

Far from a bubbling hot mess, there are mountains deep below rivaling anything up here… Yes, there's a chance that these mountains are bigger than anything on the surface of the Earth.

So taller than the Everest...!
 

Geophysicists from Princeton University in the US and the Chinese Academy of Sciences used the echoes of a massive earthquake that struck Bolivia two decades ago to piece together the topography deep beneath the surface.
 

The earthquake

On 9 June 1994, an 8.2 magnitude tremor rocked a sparsely populated region of the Amazon in Bolivia.

Nothing this powerful had been seen in decades, with shocks being felt as far away as Canada.

"Earthquakes this big don't come along very often," says geoscientist Jessica Irving.

Not only was it big, it was deep, with a focal point estimated at a depth of just under 650 kilometers (about 400 miles).

Unlike quakes that grind through the crust, the energy from these monsters can shake the whole mantle like a bowl of jelly.

 

Using wave data

 from a 8.2 magnitude earthquake in Bolivia,

 mountains were discovered at the transition zone

in layer in Earth Mantle.
 

The tremor happened to be one of the first to be measured on a modern seismic network, providing researchers with unprecedented recordings of waves bouncing through our planet's interior.
 

So what?

Just like the soundwaves from an ultrasound can reveal differences in the density of tissue inside a body, the huge waves pulsing through Earth's molten guts as its crust shudders and grinds against itself can be used to put together an image of what's down there.

Only recently geoscientists used signatures in these waves to determine the rigidity of the planet's core.

In this instance, the researchers took advantage of the 1994 quake's intensity to detect waves scattering as they transitioned between layers, revealing details of the boundaries.

"We know that almost all objects have surface roughness and therefore scatter light.

 

That's why we can see these objects - the scattering waves carry the information about the surface's roughness," says lead author Wenbo Wu, a geoscientist at the California Institute of Technology.

Topography

above and below the transition zone.

via Science via Google

"In this study, we investigated scattered seismic waves travelling inside the Earth to constrain the roughness of the Earth's 660 kilometer boundary."

At this depth there's a division between the more rigid lower parts of the mantle and an upper zone that isn't under quite as much pressure, one that creates a discontinuity marked by the appearance of various minerals.

The deepest hole we've ever dug is a paltry 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) deep, so without a Jules Verne scale tunnel to drop us down there, we've had no idea what this transition zone looks like.

Until now...
 

The transition zone and implications

Based on those all-important waves coursing through the boundary, the researchers have concluded the meeting point between the mantle's upper and lower parts is a zigzagging mountain range that puts anything on the surface to shame.

"In other words, stronger topography than the Rocky Mountains or the Appalachians is present at the 660 kilometer boundary," says Wu.

Their statistical model didn't allow for precise height determinations, but there's a chance that these mountains are bigger than anything on the surface of the Earth.

 

An underground mountain range

has been discovered that lies

410 miles beneath the Earth's surface

that's taller than Everest (pictured),

and possibly than any structure on Earth.

via AFP

This jagged line has significant implications for Earth's formation.

Most of our planet's mass consists of mantle, so knowing how it mixes and changes by transferring heat informs us of how it evolves over time.

Different takes on the evidence have produced competing models on how minerals flow and churn within the pressurized rock, some saying it's well-mixed, others suggesting there's interference at the border.
 

Earthquake waves show similar patterns…

A huge mountain range was discovered underground.

By Science via Google
 

Knowing the details of this subterranean mountain could decide the fate of various models describing the history of our planet's ever-changing geology.

"What's exciting about these results is that they give us new information to understand the fate of ancient tectonic plates which have descended into the mantle, and where ancient mantle material might still reside," says Irving.

It might not be an easy place to explore. And forget the mastodons and giant insects.

But the lost world under our feet still holds clues about our past if we know where to look.




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