Earth’s largest mountains, over 100 times taller than Mount Everest, have been found on the boundary between Africa and the Pacific Ocean, according to groundbreaking research published in the journal Nature.
These peaks are located deep beneath the Earth’s surface, rising to heights of around 1,000km, far surpassing Mount Everest’s height of 8.8km.
Scientists estimate these mountains are at least 500 million years old but may date back to Earth’s formation four billion years ago.
Dr. Arwen Deuss, a seismologist and professor at Utrecht University, said: “Nobody knows what they are or whether they are just temporary features or have been there for millions or billions of years.” Reported by NDTV citing New York Post
The research shows these massive structures sit at the boundary between Earth’s core and mantle, a semi-solid layer beneath the crust, under Africa and the Pacific Ocean.
These mountains are surrounded by a “graveyard” of tectonic plates that were transported there by a process called “subduction,” where one tectonic plate sinks below another and descends nearly 3,000km into the Earth, explained Dr. Deuss.
For decades, scientists have known about hidden structures deep in the Earth’s mantle by studying seismic shockwaves that travel through the planet.
Large earthquakes make the Earth vibrate like a bell, and it sounds “out of tune” when these waves pass through unusual objects like supercontinents.
By analyzing the tones that emerge on the other side of the planet, scientists have pieced together what lies beneath the surface.
“We see that seismic waves slow down there,” said Dr. Deuss, discussing the discovery of these underground mountains, also called “Large Low Seismic Velocity Provinces” (LLSVPs) due to this phenomenon.
The study found that these structures are hotter than the nearby tectonic plates. Scientists were surprised when they studied the “damping” of seismic waves, which refers to how much energy waves lose as they pass through the Earth.
Dr. Deuss’s colleague, Sujania Talavera-Soza, explained that “Against our expectations, we found little damping in the LLSVPs, making the tones sound louder there.” She added, “But we found significant damping in the cold slab graveyard, where the tones sounded quieter.”
This result was different from what scientists expected in the upper mantle, which is hot and typically shows more damped waves.
Talavera-Soza compared the phenomenon to running in hot weather, explaining, “You not only slow down but also feel more tired than in cooler weather.”
The findings suggest that the mountains are made of larger mineral grains than the surrounding tectonic plates, as these grains absorb less energy from seismic waves.
Talavera-Soza concluded, “Those mineral grains don’t form overnight, which means only one thing: LLSVPs are much, much older than the slab graveyards around them.”
