2024-03-10 12:31:49
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Deep in the familiar waters of the Mediterranean Sea lies a geological oddity. A recent study analyzing seismic data found that part of the earth’s crust which once formed the sea floor sis completely turned around.
In April 2010, an unusual 6.3 magnitude earthquake occurred beneath the city of Granada, Spain, sending strange seismic waves that were picked up by monitoring stations in Spain and Morocco. Now, a new study suggests that these unusual seismic signals were caused by a huge portion of ocean crust sinking into the Earth’s mantle and completely turning inside out in the process.
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Indeed, according to the results of the study published in the journal The Seismic Record, earthquake waveforms indicate that a subducted oceanic plate descended rapidly into the Earth’s mantle and overturned. And the origin of this phenomenon would be the ongoing collision between the oceanic tectonic plates of Africa and Eurasia. In addition to the flipping of this piece of the Earth’s crust, this discovery also implies that the water it carried on its surface is now below the surface of the seafloor.
Although these findings seem strange, the researchers hope they will help other scientists better understand the complex tectonic structure of the western Mediterranean basin where Africa and Eurasia converge.
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