Earth’s puzzling superplumes

Two huge and mysterious blobs buried deep inside the Earth may be the remains of planet Theia, which is believed to have slammed into Earth 4.5 billion years ago, creating the moon


COSMIC COLLISION
Theia
Earth 
1

Impact known as “Big Whack”
2

Matter from both planets thrown into space
3

4

Some matter rejoins Earth
Some becomes our moon
5

 
LARGE LOW-SHEAR-VELOCITY PROVINCE (LLSVP, aka superplume)

Crust
Core-mantle boundary
Core
Mantle

Pacific LLSVP	Africa LLSVP
Both lie 3,000km below Earth’s crust and are denser than mantle around them – possibly due to high levels of iron – similar to moon rocks


Sources: Reuters, New York Times, New Scientist, NASA 
Pictures: NASA 
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