Mountain range larger than Himalayas discovered 650km underground
Data from the second-largest earthquake in recorded history gives scientists a glimpse into the structure of the Earth's subsurface.
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Sputnik cited research results published in Science magazine on February 14, reporting that scientists found the giant structure from seismic wave data recorded during the 1994 Bolivia earthquake.
The Earth's crust is a dense band of silicate rock that extends from the surface to the core, making up 84% of the planet's mass. Located 650 km below the Earth's surface, a boundary called the 660-km discontinuity divides the Earth's crust into upper and lower layers.
The topography of the boundary is extremely difficult to read because of the density of the crust. One possible way to do this is with seismic waves. The waves reflect off different textures, minerals, and structures, which are thought to be similar to the way light waves bounce off objects. From the reflection mechanism, scientists can get a rough idea of the boundary's structure.
“We need large earthquakes to allow seismic waves to travel through the mantle and core, reach the 660-km boundary, and bounce back up to the surface,” Jessica Irving, a geophysicist at Princeton University and author of the study, said in an email interview.
Using data from the 1994 8.2-magnitude earthquake in Bolivia, Irving's team discovered a terrain feature “larger” than the Rocky Mountains or the Appalachian Mountains at the boundary.
“I can’t give you an estimate, but it could be taller than Mount Everest,” Irving said when asked about the height of the newly discovered mountain range, which he said was larger than the Himalayas.
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