The outgoing Editor-in-Chief of JGR: Solid Earth reflects on their tenure and expresses appreciation to all those who contributed to the success of the journal over recent years.
Sat, 27 Feb 2021 12:00 UTC
An upsurge of matter from deep beneath the Earth s crust could be pushing the continents of North and South America further apart from Europe and Africa, new research has found.
The plates attached to the Americas are moving apart from those attached to Europe and Africa by four centimetres per year. In between these continents lies the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a site where new plates are formed and a dividing line between plates moving to the west and those moving to the east; beneath this ridge, material rises to replace the space left by the plates as they move apart.
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Researchers deploy remote sensors at the bottom of the Atlantic (University of Southampton)
Tectonic plates form deep beneath the oceans, making it very difficult for scientists to study their formation and evolution. In 2016, a research team went on a mission to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge to explore the mysteries of plate tectonics. The mission, nicknamed PI-LAB, was to scan deep beneath the ridge using seismic imaging techniques. The analysis reveals that a geological phenomenon is widening the Atlantic Ocean. The seismologists found that an upsurge of matter from deep beneath the Earthâs crust could be pushing the continents of North and South America further apart from Europe and Africa.
Harry Pettit, Senior Digital Technology and Science Reporter
28 Jan 2021, 16:08
BRITAIN and America are growing further apart due to the unusual movement of magma under the Earth s crust, research has found.
Experts from the UK dropped seismometers to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean and found deep geological forces previously unknown to science.
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They re thought to be partly responsible for the glacial movement of tectonic plates which pulls the Americas apart from Europe and Africa by a few centimetres each year.
According to the research team, the finding sheds light on mysterious processes beneath our planet s crust.
Dr Kate Rychert, an expert at the University of Southampton who worked on the project, said the discovery has broad implications for our understanding of Earth’s evolution and habitability .
TORONTO A new study has found that an upsurge of matter from beneath the Earth s crust under the Atlantic Ocean may be pushing the continents of North and South America farther apart from Europe and Africa. Researchers out of the University of Southampton have found evidence of a mantle upwelling from depths of more than 600 kilometres beneath the Mid-Atlantic ridge, causing the distance between continents to increase. There is a growing distance between North America and Europe, and it is not driven by political or philosophical differences it is caused by mantle convection, one of the study s chief scientists, Nick Harmon, said in a press release.