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East African Rift system promotes volcanic activities in places such as Erta Ale Volcano in Ethiopia (shown here). | Credit: Mike Korostelev via Getty Images
Researchers have found new evidence that there are giant hot rocks under Africa, causing intensive volcanic activity and dividing the continent in two.
Geologists have long known that Africa is gradually standing out in a region called the East African cracks (ears), but the driving force of this mass geological process took place for discussions. Now a new study provided geochemical evidence that a Previously theorized superfalls Press before and break the African crust.
Scientists have found that gas in the geothermal field in the central part of the Kenya has a chemical signature that originated from the deep mantle of the Earth, probably from the mantle and the bottom of the core. The signature overlaps a statement from Glasgow University in Scotland.
“Deep mantle signatures observed in different ear segments Biying ChenIn Edinburgh University in Scotland, Live Science, a post -study researcher at the Geoscience School of Geosciences, told Live Science by email. In the letter.
Researchers published their conclusions on May 12. In the magazine Geophysical research letters;
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The ears are The largest active The Continental Rift system on Earth, which crosses about 2,175 miles (3,500 km) in Africa. Lithosphere, stony exterior crust and upper mantle sheath, was gradually Separation During the Rift for about 35 million years. It left a valleys network that carries over the top of the continent from the Red Sea to the Northeast Africa to Mozambique in South Africa.
Previous studies have been identified Signs of deep mantle Under the ears with noble gas signatures. Noble gas such as helium and NeonThey are rare and inert, which means that they usually do not respond chemically with other materials. As a result, they hold for a long time, so researchers can use them a trace Long -term geological processes. However, Chen noted that these geochemical tracers were few and often controversial under their ears.
To help find out what’s going under the ears, the team used high precision instruments to look for neon (no) Isotopes In Kenya’s gas – and they found a deep signature of the mantle. The signature in the gas is very similar to the signatures of the primordial (ancient) surface signatures in Hawaii, which are also believed to sit on a Deep mantle fiber;
“We were very pleased to see the preliminary non -isotope data showing the signature of the primordial deep mantle,” Chen said. “But the deep signature of the mantle is small and we had to work hard to separate it. Actually, there was no Eureka moment, we often doubted the result and spent many hours checking and re -checking the data.”
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When the team strictly evaluated the data, they became convinced that the signature was a real and coordinated signature found in other Rift locations. Chen noted that the ears were most likely to come from the Core-Mantle boundary at a depth of about 1,800 miles (2,900 km) Inside the earth;
Although ear signatures are similar to those found in volcanic rocks in Hawaii, Chen noted that Hawaiian feathers are offered as a separate rising hot mantle flow, a bit like a lava lamp, and the ears are probably in a different shape.
“It is more likely that the large hot floating material from the deep earth changed the mantle that was originally under the ears,” Chen said. “Because it has risen and corresponds to a solid cooler lithosphere, it emits enough force to break the thin lithosphere, which causes intense volcanic activity in the region.”