Exploring Earth's mantle through microseisms

The ocean is constantly whirring with activity. The pressure from this constant roiling and swelling is one cause of microseisms—random, nearly imperceptible vibrations of Earth that also can be produced by human activities ...

Mapping the chemistry of the Earth's mantle

The Earth's mantle makes up about 85% of the Earth's volume and is made of solid rock. But exactly what rock types is the mantle made of, and how are they distributed throughout the mantle? An international team of researchers—including ...

Aluminous silica: A major water carrier in the lower mantle

Water is transported by oceanic plates into the Earth's deep interior and changes the properties of minerals and rocks, affecting the Earth's internal material cycle and environmental evolution since the formation of the ...

Deep diamonds contain evidence of deep-Earth recycling processes

Diamonds that formed deep in the Earth's mantle contain evidence of chemical reactions that occurred on the seafloor. Probing these gems can help geoscientists understand how material is exchanged between the planet's surface ...

Former piece of Pacific Ocean floor imaged deep beneath China

In a study that gives new meaning to the term "rock bottom," seismic researchers have discovered the underside of a rocky slab of Earth's surface layer, or lithosphere, that has been pulled more than 400 miles beneath northeastern ...

Is the Earth's transition zone deforming like the upper mantle?

In a recently published paper in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, researchers from the Geodynamics Research Center, Ehime University and the University of Lille combine numerical modeling of dislocation glide and results ...

page 1 from 3