The discovery of ancient rocks at a mid-ocean ridge suggests that if there are lost continents, remnants might still be there. Read our latest article to find out more.
, located between Africa and Antarctica, are not only remnants of a continent; they are also old enough to support the hypothesis that much of Earth’s continents formed early on and became “lost” or hidden deep below Earth’s ocean crust., a marine geologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, visited the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in 2017 to collect the rock samples dredged from the ridge previously.
His analysis showed the rocks are perhaps up to 2.7 billion years old — old enough to have been around when Earth’s first continents formed. Finding out which ancient continent they came from, however, is difficult.Liu says convection currents in the mantle can transport large blocks of the earth’s crust, called cratons, over vast distances.
To have reached the ridge, Liu and his colleagues propose that plumes of hot, rising mantle rock beneath South Africa eroded the bottom of the craton, dislodging pieces that were then transported by convection currents to the ocean ridge.
“If Earth once had voluminous continents, surely these ‘lost continents’ are hidden below the crust,” says Mitchell. The recycling of lost continents into the depths may have been possible thanks to plumes that were even hotter during Earth’s early history, he adds. “If it’s happening today, it would havefrom lost continents, the researchers’ computer simulations suggest that there could be more at mid-ocean ridges.
Even better, the ocean around the Southwest Indian Ridge is particularly rough. “Ross, get ready to pack your suitcase,” says Liu.
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