Mysterious clots floating in our planet's mantle could be the remains of the mantle of ancient Theia, a collision with which led to the appearance of the moon.
Could it be that a collision led to the appearance of
the moon?
Representative Image.
These fragments are one of the largest and strangest structures on Earth:
Huge, mysterious clots of dense rock lurking in the lowest parts of our planet's mantle, according to Science Alert .
The two giant masses include so-called large low shear rate areas ( LLSVPs ), one of which was buried beneath Africa and the other beneath the Pacific Ocean.
These anomalies are so large that they give rise to their own deviations. For example, a phenomenon as large as the South Atlantic Anomaly, which is currently weakening the Earth's magnetic field.
As to how and why LLSVPs originated in the mantle this way, experts have many ideas but little solid evidence.
Theia: The Origin of the Moon
These giant clots have existed for a long time, and many scientists believe they may have been part of Earth before the giant Earth impact that created the Moon – the ancient remains of Earth's collision with the hypothetical planet Theia.
According to this hypothesis, Mars-sized Theia collided with Earth about 4.5 billion years ago, and a large chunk of Theia and/or possibly Earth broke off and became the Moon we know today.
As for the rest of Theia, scientists don't know what happened to it. Was it destroyed or just flown off into unknown space.
Some researchers have suggested that the cores of these two primary planets may have merged into one, and that the chemical exchanges caused by this epic merger allowed life itself to thrive on this newly created world.
These mysterious clots are one of the largest and
strangest structures on Earth
These mysterious clots are one of the largest and strangest structures on Earth.
Now, scientists have returned to these monumental questions with another guess.
According to a new simulation led by researchers at the University of Arizona (ASU) , LLSVPs could be ancient fragments of Theia's dense, iron-rich mantle.
It sank deep into the Earth's mantle when the two worlds merged and was buried there for a billion years.
The lunar impact model is one of the most studied, but direct evidence for the existence of Theia remains unclear. Theia's mantle may be several percent denser than Earth's mantle.
This allows Theia mantle materials to sink into the lower part of the Earth’s mantle thermochemical clusters that can cause LLSVPs,”
explain the researchers, led by seismologist Qian Yuan of Arizona State University.
While there have been suggestions for many years that
LLSVPs may be an alien “surprise” delivered by Theia, the new study provides
the most formulaic explanation.
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