(Natural News) Earth’s inner core may have reversed its rotation, according to a team of researchers from China. The team’s peer-reviewed study was published Monday, Jan. 23, in the journal Nature Geoscience. The reversal of the inner core rotation would shorten the length of the day by a fraction of a millisecond over the course of a […]

(Natural News) A recent study published in the journal Nature Geoscience suggests that Earth’s deep mantle likely harbors hydrous minerals that are in an extreme phase of water known as “superionic ice.” Also called “superionic water,” superionic ice is black, hot and several times heavier than normal ice. This strange phase has both solid and liquid properties at the same time – […]

(Natural News) A massive “ocean” hidden in the Earth’s mantle may be triggering earthquakes that originate deep in the planet’s interior. This is what researchers from Carnegie Institute for Science and University of Alberta in Canada suggest in their study, which links fluids trapped in rocks deep underground to so-called deep-focus earthquakes. The researchers detailed their findings in a paper published May 26 in […]

(Natural News) Researchers hypothesize that massive blobs of dense rocks hugging Earth’s core may be the sunken remains of Theia, a Mars-sized protoplanet thought to have smashed into the young Earth billions of years ago. Qian Yuan, a doctoral student of geodynamics at Arizona State University and the lead researcher of the study, presented their hypothesis during the 52nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, which […]

(Natural News) Researchers from the University of Houston may have uncovered evidence of the Resurrection plate, a tectonic plate believed to have sunk into Earth’s mantle in the Pacific margin between 40 and 60 million years ago. A study published in the journal Geological Society of America Bulletin revealed that a massive chunk of rock below northern Canada closely matches […]

(Natural News) Primitive continents as old as Earth may be lurking beneath the surface. Formed just shortly after the Big Bang, these continents stood the test of time and survived cataclysmic impacts such as the collision that created the Moon billions of years ago. Researchers from the University of California at Davis and the University of […]

(Natural News) An unusual mineral was discovered embedded within a diamond from a South African volcanic site. The mineral called goldschmidtite represents a new supergroup of minerals, according to a study published in the journal American Mineralogist, and it could hint at the chemical processes that occur deep within the Earth’s mantle. Named in honor of the geochemist […]

(Natural News) The typical visual depiction of the Earth’s mantle as a solid band of yellow-orange sitting between the crust and core has just received an update. A recent paper in Nature Geoscience now describes it as “more heterogenous” than what people previously thought. An international group led by the University of Utah provided a more diverse representation of the mantle, far […]

(Natural News) The medial zone of the Earth’s three-layered interior, the mantle is itself divided into upper and lower parts. Most experts believe that the lower mantle is dormant, but a recent European study found greater signs of dynamic activity in the region. The lower mantle starts 410 miles (660 km) beneath the crust of […]

(Natural News) The Bermuda Islands sit atop evidence of a new process of volcanic formation. Researchers have discovered that molten material from the Earth’s mantle transition zone might filter toward the surface and form a volcano. Experts know of two methods of volcanic formation. One of the processes takes place when tectonic plates crash together. The other […]