The material rises in feathers through the interior of the Earth

2010/03/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Geologia

Geologists from the University of Hawaii have achieved the image of a hot rock feather that leaves the deep mantle of Earth on the islands of Hawaii. As indicated, this discovery confirms that there are the feathers of the mantle.

So far, geologists have not been able to carry out a direct study in the mantle and the existence of feathers was no more than a suspicion, since the theoretical models and the investigations carried out so suggested. To perform direct measurements, Hawaii researchers conducted an experiment to measure earthquakes. Seismic waves propagate more slowly when they cross hot materials than when they cross cold.

Thus, by placing sensors at the bottom of the ocean to detect the speed of propagation of seismic waves, they have been able to illuminate the structure of the earth's crust and the earth mantle, up to 1,500 kilometers deep. They have seen, among other things, that as the ground surface is reached the pen is crushed, and when it is missing about 200 kilometers to reach the surface, it acquires bollería form. There the materials melt, expand and rise through the slits.