Earth’s mantle may have hidden flume ventilation heat from its core

A section of the Earth’s mantle under Oman seems to be unusually hot, in what scientists say may be the first known “Ghost Plume” – a pillar of hot stone originating from the lower mantle without apparent volcanic activity on the surface.

Mantel feathers are mysterious raised stones, which are believed to transfer heat from the core-Mamanic border to the ground surface, far from the edges of tectonic plates. There are a dozen examples assumed to occur below the center of continental plates – for example, under Yellowstone and the East African rift. “But these are all boxes where you have surface vulcanism,” says Simone Pilia at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia. Oman has no such volcanic traces.

Pilia first CAM to suspect there was a plume under Oman “Serendipithed” after he began analyzing new seismic data from the region. He observed the speed of waves generated by distant earthquakes slowed down into a cylindrical area under eastern Oman, indicating that the rocks were less stiff than the surrounding material due to high temples.

Noth -independent seismic measurements showed key boundaries where minerals deep in the soil change phases in a way consists of a hot feather. These measurements suggest that Plume extends more than 660 kilometers below the surface.

The presence of a plume could also explain why the region has continued to go in height long after tectonic compression – a geological process in which the soil’s crust is pressed together – stopped. It also fits models of what could have caused a shift in the movement of the Indian tectonic plate.

“The more we collected evidence, the more we were convinced that it is a plume,” says Pilia, who named the geological function “Dani Plume” according to his sound.

“It’s plausible” that there is actually a pen there, says Saskia, who goes to Imperial College London, adding that the study is “thorough”. However, she points out that narrow feathers are notoriously difficult to detect.

If it exists, the presence of a “ghost plume” with the mantle of the relatively thick stoned layer under Oman suggests that there are others, Pilia says. “We have associated with Dani Plume not alone.”

If there are many other hidden feathers, it could mean that more heat from the core flows directly through the mantle via feathers, rather than through slower convection, says Goes. “It has consequences, potentially, for the development of the soil, if we get another estimate of how much heat comes out of the mantle.