They discover a powerful “river of stones” under the Caribbean Sea

Geologists have long believed that tectonic plates move because they are dragged down due to their weight, and that a warmer and softer substrate is called The Acinosphere, As a negative lubricant.

But recently A team of geologists from the University of Houston (UH) has discovered that the layer is actually flowing in force, It moves fast enough to drive the movements of the board.

UH College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics researchers, Subtle changes observed in the gravitational pull It was detected by satellite in the Caribbean and in tomography images of its hydrosphere. There they collided with a river of hot rocks rising in the Pacific Ocean., Through a gateway under Central America, And it reaches the middle of the Caribbean Sea.

This is an underground “river of rocks” It began to flow Eight million years ago, When the Central American Gate was opened, and the covered sea floor was raised several hundred meters and miles to the northeast, where the Lesser Antilles are located.

Great discoveries in geology

“Without the additional support generated by this outflow into the Moorish atmosphere, parts of Central America would remain below sea level.. Study co-author Lorenzo Cole, associate professor of geophysics, geodynamics and mantle structure in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, said the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans would be linked without the need for the Panama Canal.

Discoveries It has implications for understanding the shape of the Earth’s surfaceThrough the emergence and disappearance of shallow seas, low-lying bridges, and forces that move tectonic plates and cause earthquakes.

Another great find, according to the researchers, is that The morphosphere moves just over 15 cm per year, which is three times faster than the average plate. You can move independently from the overlapping panels and pull them in a different direction.

“This challenges the top-down idea that subduction is always the driver,” explained Johnny Wu, co-author of the study and assistant professor of skeletal geology, tectonics and mantle structure. “Plates that move like an air hockey puck and are lubricated at the bottom. Instead, what we found is that the air hockey table imposes its own currents on the moving disc, creating a bottom-up motion that is not well recognized, and is defined here, “added Wu.