Two massive, ancient regions, the size of continents, have been discovered deep within Earth's mantle, challenging conventional understanding of the planet's interior.
Deep within Earth's mantle, two colossal regions, the size of continents, have been discovered. These 'islands' defy expectations by exhibiting significantly higher temperatures than the surrounding regions of cold, sunken tectonic plates . Furthermore, research suggests that these anomalies are ancient, potentially half a billion years old or even older. This finding challenges the prevailing theory of a well-mixed and rapidly flowing Earth's mantle, a concept increasingly under scrutiny.
Scientists at Utrecht University made this groundbreaking discovery by analyzing seismic waves, which act like sound waves traveling through the Earth. Large earthquakes generate these waves, causing the entire planet to vibrate like a bell. By examining how much these vibrations are 'out of tune' or dampened, seismologists can create images of the Earth's interior, much like X-rays reveal internal structures in the human body. At the end of the last century, this technique revealed the existence of two subsurface 'super-continents' located thousands of kilometers beneath the surface – one beneath Africa and the other beneath the Pacific Ocean. These regions, known as Large Low Seismic Velocity Provinces (LLSVPS), were initially enigmatic, with scientists unsure of their nature and longevity. However, the latest study, published in 2025, sheds new light on these ancient formations. The researchers found that the LLSVPs exhibit surprisingly low damping of seismic waves, indicating that they are composed of much larger mineral grains compared to the surrounding 'slab graveyard' of sunken tectonic plates. This larger grain size suggests that the LLSVPs have been around for a very long time, allowing the mineral grains to grow to their current size. Moreover, their rigidity implies that they are not actively involved in mantle convection, the churning motion of the Earth's mantle.This finding challenges the traditional view of a well-mixed mantle, suggesting instead that there are distinct, ancient, and relatively immobile regions deep within our planet
Earth's Mantle Seismic Waves Large Low Seismic Velocity Provinces (LLSVPS) Mantle Convection Tectonic Plates
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