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Geography
Mahesh

15/04/23 12:34 PM IST

Sunken ocean floor

In News
  • Using high-resolution imaging of the interiors of our planet, geologists have found something that hasn’t been discovered before—a layer between the core and the mantle that is likely to be a thin but dense sunken ocean floor.
Major Highlights
  • Nearly 3,000 kilometres beneath our planet’s surface, its rocky mantle meets the molten metallic outer core.
  • The geologists deployed a seismic network and collected data during four trips to Antarctica over three years. They used 15 stations buried in Antarctica to measure seismic waves created by earthquakes from around the globe.
  • Later, they used this data to create an image of the Earth, similar to how medical scans are used to create an image of the human body.
  • There are mountains on the core, these underground "mountains" could be up to 5 times taller than Mt. Everest, and they could help explain the changes in physical properties between the outer core and the mantle, which are greater than those between the surface of the Earth and the air above it.
  • The subducted oceanic material could collect along the core-mantle boundary where it can be pushed by the slowly flowing rock in the mantle over time. This suggests that Earth's history is more complex than previously thought, with the possibility of multiple sunken ocean floors adding to the complexity of the planet's geological makeup
  • These underground “mountains” could play an important role in how heat escapes from the core.
  • These materials from ancient ocean floors can also get caught up in mantle plumes, travelling back to the surface through volcanic eruptions.
Ocean Floor
  • The ocean floor is the bottom of the ocean that covers more than 70% of the Earth’s surface.
  • It has different features and depths depending on the location and the movement of tectonic plates.
  • The ocean floor can be divided into four main zones-
  • Continental Shelf - The shallowest and widest part of the ocean floor.
  • Continental Slope-The steep slope that connects the continental shelf to the abyssal plain
  • Abyssal Plain - The flattest part of the ocean floor.
  • Oceanic Deeps or Trenches - These areas are the deepest parts of the oceans.
Source- Indian Express

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