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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.
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Two crossed lines that form an X . It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification. A map of the Atlantic Ocean floor. NASA Earth Observatory map by Joshua Stevens, using data from Sandwell, D. et al. (2014).
The tectonic plates under the Americas, Europe, and Africa are being pushed apart as the Atlantic Ocean widens year by year.
New research reveals what s pushing the plates apart: Material from deep within the Earth is bursting upward at an undersea ridge in the middle of the Atlantic.
The Atlantic Ocean grows 1.5 inches wider every year.
That s because the tectonic plates undergirding the Americas are separating from those beneath Europe and Africa. But precisely how and why that is happening has been a mystery to scientists, since the geological forces that typically push plates apart aren t prevalent in the Atlantic.
Mysterious Phenomenon Could Be Making The Atlantic Ocean Grow Bigger Every Year
27 JANUARY 2021
The oceans are not as equal as you might think. Scientists estimate that the Atlantic Ocean is actually growing wider by several centimetres every year. At the same time, the Pacific is shrinking.
This glacially slow shifting of oceans is due to the ongoing movement of Earth s tectonic plates, as the plates underneath the Americas pull apart from those underneath Europe and Africa.
The deep, geophysical forces underpinning this epic phenomenon remain far from fully understood, but researchers may have just identified an important contributor to what s happening.
Scientists found upwellings of material beneath the Earth’s surface from depths far lower than previously known.
Thirty-nine seismometers were deployed on the ocean floor across the Mid-Atlantic Ridge as part of the PI-LAB experiment. (The University of Southampton)
(CN) Material welling up from the Earth’s mantle could be slowly moving North and South America away from Europe and Africa, according to a study published Wednesday.
Between those four continents, and the tectonic plates they are attached to, is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where new plates are formed. In the study published in Nature, a team of researchers from the University of Southampton and the University of Oxford say they discovered evidence of upwellings in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge from depths far deeper than such upwellings have been previously thought to originate.