ROCK DRIVES A WEDGE BETWEEN CONTINENTS
“Guys, I have exciting news! A rise in the hot rock under the Atlantic Ocean might be pushing away continents on either side — North and South America away from Europe and Africa,” Orak gushed.
A team of researchers was assigned two research cruises, RV Langseth and RRV Discovery. Dr. Kate Rychert and Dr. Nick Harmon from the University of Southampton, Professor Mike Kendall from the University of Oxford were the chief scientists on the cruises.
While onboard, they sent 39 seismometers to the bottom of the Atlantic ocean. A seismometer is an instrument used to measure the movement of the earth. The signals received hinted at the rising hot rock from deep earth. It took them a total of 10 weeks to complete the experiment.
“Orak, can you please elaborate on the find?” Felix joined the conversation.
Orak explained, “Earth has several layers, inner core, core, mantle, and crust. Hot rock is the matter or material in Earth’s mantle. Earth’s crust is the uppermost layer. It is broken into huge pieces known as tectonic plates. These plates make up the land of continents and seafloor. The movement of these plates causes the movement of continents. It is known as plate tectonics.
“Due to plate tectonics, North and South American continents are moving away from Europe and Africa by 4 cm per year. Now, previous researchers think that when plates slide, there remains a gap. To fill it, material from the lower layer of Earth — mantle, seeps up to fill in the gap. But the recent study has discovered that it might be the other way around!
Between these continents, in the Atlantic ocean, lies the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It is a region where new tectonic plates are formed. Turns out, the material or hot rock is rising upwards on its own from more than 600km beneath the Ridge. This movement is pushing the tectonic plates, causing them to separate, and thus leading to the continents drifting apart!”
“Orak, this is brilliant! It means the research can help us study tectonic plates better, along with earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, all caused by plate tectonics,” Verum added.
“All that is fine,” Felix looked alarmed. “But how are the continents drifting going to affect us?”
“Yes, Felix,” Orak replied. “The movement in continents may lead to climate changes.”
