Mysterious Blobs Deep Inside Earth May Fuel Deadly Volcanic Eruptions
New research has revealed that specific features deep within Earth can be linked directly to such cataclysmic eruptions.
Thousands of kilometers below Earth's surface, there is a solid layer of hot rock called the lower mantle. Textbook diagrams would have you believe this is a smooth layer, but the lower mantle actually contains a mountainous topography, with two continent-sized structures, possibly made of different materials than their surrounds.
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These hidden structures feature craggy ranges that shift and buckle much like the tectonic plates far above them.
Volcanologist Annalise Cucchiaro from the University of Wollongong in Australia and her colleagues have found these big lower-mantle basal structures – termed 'BLOBS' by the research team – have a direct influence on volcanic activity at Earth's surface.
When scorching columns of rock, known as deep mantle plumes, first rise from depths of nearly 3,000 kilometers (almost 2,000 miles), we get the kinds of Earth-shattering volcanoes that wiped out most of life on Earth, and had a hand in the extinction of the dinosaurs.
The BLOBS seemed a likely source of these subterranean plumes, and Cucchiaro's team has now confirmed this connection using three different datasets that provide extensive detail on large volcanic eruptions that happened around 300 million years ago.
"This work highlights the importance of mantle plumes in acting as 'magma highways' to the surface, creating these giant eruptions," Cucchiaro says.
"It also shows that these plumes move along with their source, the BLOBS."
There are two BLOBS within the lower mantle. One is below the African hemisphere, and the other, under the Pacific.
We still don't know if the BLOBS are ever fixed in place, or if they're always moving around via convection, but the new research suggests it's a dynamic system with direct repercussions for us surface dwellers.
By simulating the movements of BLOBS 1 billion years ago, the team showed that they produced mantle plumes that were sometimes slightly tilted as they rose. This meant eruptions occurred either directly above the BLOBS, or close to it – and these locations matched that of known eruptions.
"We used statistics to show that the locations of past giant volcanic eruptions are significantly related to the mantle plumes predicted by our models," Cucchiaro and her colleague, geoscientist Nicholas Flament, explained in The Conversation.
"This is encouraging, as it suggests that the simulations predict mantle plumes in places and at times generally consistent with the geologic record."
As much as they destroy, large eruptions also have the power to create, and knowing where they may occur – either historically or in the future – could also help us to find magmatic treasures like kimberlite and diamonds, and minerals that could be used in harnessing renewable energy.
"This research cracks open one of the questions that has long plagued scientists – are the BLOBS stationary or mobile and how do they relate to giant volcanic explosions – so it is a thrill to finally [be able] to unravel these mysteries," says Flament.
This research was published in Communications Earth & Environment.
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The asteroid that will spare Earth might hit the moon instead. What happens if it does?
The asteroid known as 2024 YR4 is out of sight yet still very much on scientists' minds. The building-sized object, which initially appeared to be on a potential collision course with Earth, is currently zooming beyond the reach of telescopes on its orbit around the sun. But as scientists wait for it to reappear, its revised trajectory is now drawing attention to another possible target: the moon. Discovered at the end of 2024, the space rock looked at first as if it might hit our planet by December 22, 2032. The chance of that impact changed with every new observation, peaking at 3.1% in February — odds that made it the riskiest asteroid ever observed. Ground- and space-based telescope observations were crucial in helping astronomers narrow in on 2024 YR4's size and orbit. With more precise measurements, researchers were ultimately able to rule out an Earth impact. The latest observations of the asteroid in early June, before YR4 disappeared from view, have improved astronomers' knowledge of where it will be in seven years by almost 20%, according to NASA. That data shows that even with Earth avoiding direct impact, YR4 could still pose a threat in late 2032 by slamming into the moon. The impact would be a once-in-a-lifetime event for humanity to witness — but it could also send fine-grained lunar material hurtling toward our planet. While Earth wouldn't face any significant physical danger should the asteroid strike the moon, there is a chance that any astronauts or infrastructure on the lunar surface at that time could be at risk — as could satellites orbiting our planet that we depend on to keep vital aspects of life, including navigation and communications, running smoothly. Any missions in low-Earth orbit could also be in the pathway of the debris, though the International Space Station is scheduled to be deorbited before any potential impact. Initially, YR4 was seen as a case study in why scientists do the crucial work of planetary defense, discovering and tracking asteroids to determine which ones have a chance of colliding with Earth. Now, astronomers say this one asteroid could redefine the range of risks the field addresses, expanding the purview of the work to include monitoring asteroids that might be headed for the moon as well. 'We're starting to realize that maybe we need to extend that shield a little bit further,' said Dr. Paul Wiegert, a professor of astronomy and physics at the Western University in London, Ontario. 'We now have things worth protecting that are a bit further away from Earth, so our vision is hopefully expanding a little bit to encompass that.' In the meantime, researchers are assessing just how much chaos a potential YR4 lunar impact could create — and whether anything can be done to mitigate it. 'City killer' on the moon The threatening hunk of rock appears as just a speck of light through even the strongest astronomical tools. In reality, YR4 is likely about 60 meters (about 200 feet) in diameter, according to observations in March by the James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful space-based observatory in operation. 'Size equals energy,' said Julien de Wit, associate professor of planetary sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who observed YR4 with Webb. 'Knowing YR4's size helped us understand how big of an explosion it could be.' 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The latest glimpses of YR4 on June 3 before it passed out of view revealed a 4.3% chance of a YR4 lunar impact — small but decent enough odds for scientists to consider how such a scenario might play out. A striking meteor shower — and a risk Initial calculations suggest the impact has the largest chance of occurring on the near side of the moon — the side we can see from Earth. 'YR4 is so faint and small we were able to measure its position with JWST longer than we were able to do it from the ground,' said Rivkin, who has been leading the Webb study of YR4. 'And that lets us calculate a much more precise orbit for it, so we now have a much better idea of where it will be and won't be.' The collision could create a bright flash that would be visible with the naked eye for several seconds, according to Wiegert, lead author of a recent paper submitted to the American Astronomical Society journals analyzing the potential lunar impact. The collision could create an impact crater on the moon estimated at 1 kilometer wide (0.6 miles wide), Wiegert said — about the size of Meteor Crater in Arizona, Rivkin added. It would be the largest impact on the moon in 5,000 years and could release up to 100 million kilograms (220 million pounds) of lunar rocks and dust, according to the modeling in Wiegert's study. Even pieces of debris that are just tens of centimeters in size could present a hazard for any astronauts who may be present on the moon, or any structures they have built for research and habitation, Wiegert said. The moon has no atmosphere, so the debris from the event could be widespread on the lunar surface, he added. On average, the moon is 238,855 miles (384,400 kilometers) away from Earth, according to NASA. Particles the size of large sand grains, ranging from 0.1 to 10 millimeters in size, of lunar material could reach Earth between a few days and a few months after the asteroid strike because they'll be traveling incredibly fast, creating an intense, eye-catching meteor shower, Wiegert said. 'There's absolutely no danger to anyone on the surface,' Wiegert said. 'We're not expecting large boulders or anything larger than maybe a sugar cube, and our atmosphere will protect us very nicely from that. But they're traveling faster than a speeding bullet, so if they were to hit a satellite, that could cause some damage.' Not all lunar debris that reaches the Earth is so small, and it depends on the angle and type of impact to the moon, according to Washington University in St. Louis. Space rocks slamming into the lunar surface over millions of years have resulted in various sizes of lunar meteorites found on Earth. 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Instead, it might be more akin to when a piece of gravel strikes a car windshield at high speed, meaning solar panels or other delicate satellite parts might be damaged, but the satellite will remain in one piece, Wiegert said. While a temporary loss of communication and navigation from satellites would create widespread difficulties on Earth, Wiegert said he believes the potential impact is something for satellite operators, rather than the public, to worry about. Protecting Earth and the moon Scientists and astronomers around the world are thinking about the possible scenarios since they could not rule out a lunar impact before YR4 disappeared from view, Wiegert said. 'We realize that an impact to the moon could be consequential, so what would we do?' de Wit said. A potential planetary defense plan might be clearer if the asteroid were headed straight for Earth. Rivkin helped test one approach in September 2022 as the principal investigator of NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, which intentionally slammed a spacecraft into the asteroid Dimorphos in September 2022. Dimorphos is a moonlet asteroid that orbits a larger parent asteroid known as Didymos. Neither poses a threat to Earth, but the double-asteroid system was a perfect target to test deflection technology because Dimorphos' size is comparable to asteroids that could harm our planet in the event of an impact. The DART mission crashed a spacecraft into the asteroid at 13,645 miles per hour (6 kilometers per second) to find out whether such a kinetic impact would be enough to change the motion of a celestial object in space. It worked. Since the day of the collision, data from ground-based telescopes has revealed that the DART spacecraft did alter Dimorphos' orbital period — or how long it takes to make a single revolution around Didymos — by about 32 or 33 minutes. 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