Hidden layer beneath Earth’s tectonic plates
Researchers have detected a previously unknown layer of molten rock beneath the Earth’s crust. The discovery could help scientists understand more about the movements of Earth’s tectonic plates.
River of rocks
Geologists have previously thought that tectonic plates move because they are pulled by the weight of their sinking regions and that an underlying, hot, softer layer called the asthenosphere acts as a passive lubricant. Now a team of geologists at the University of Houston has found that layer is flowing swiftly, moving fast enough to …
Source of intraplate volcanism
The asthenosphere – which is derived from the Greek asthenes, meaning weak – is the uppermost part of the Earth’s mantle, right below the tectonic plates that make up the solid lithosphere. Traditionally, the asthenosphere has been viewed as a passive region that separates the moving tectonic plates from the mantle.