Enigma Beneath the Waves: Unveiling a Hidden Realm in the Pacific Ocean

Geophysicists have made a remarkable revelation concerning the Earth’s interior, disclosing unanticipated remnants of submerged tectonic plates in regions distant from conventional plate boundaries.

This investigation, spearheaded by a group from ETH Zurich and the California Institute of Technology, employed advanced seismic imaging methods to detect these anomalies, which were described in a recent article in Scientific Reports.

Historically, scientists have depended on seismic waves created by earthquakes to deduce the Earth’s structure.

Similarly to how physicians utilize ultrasound to observe internal organs, geophysicists study the propagation of seismic waves through various materials.

These waves may be refracted, reflected, or diffracted depending on the density and elasticity of the encountered materials. By scrutinizing these wave patterns, researchers can infer the Earth’s internal composition and processes.

The team’s pioneering technique involved full-waveform inversion, which examines all categories of seismic waves instead of just one.

This approach necessitates substantial computational power, which led to the utilization of the Piz Daint supercomputer located in Switzerland. The findings revealed that regions resembling submerged tectonic plates are located beneath expansive oceans and within continental interiors—areas where no geological signs of former subduction have been observed.

A particularly significant finding was located beneath the western Pacific Ocean, where prevailing tectonic theories propose that no vestiges of subducted plates should exist. Thomas Schouten, a doctoral candidate participating in the research, remarked on the astonishing extent of these discoveries.

“Evidently, such zones in the Earth’s mantle are far more extensive than previously recognized,” he remarked.

The implications of these discoveries are substantial. They challenge established plate tectonics models and propose that ancient materials may endure in the mantle long after subduction events have concluded.

As researchers persist in examining these anomalies, they aspire to develop a deeper understanding of the dynamics within Earth’s interior and its influence on surface processes.