Science
The Remnants of Theia May Still Exist Deep Inside the Earth – ExtremeTech
The remnants of Theia, the planetesimal that created the Moon, may still exist hundreds of miles beneath the surface of the Earth.
There are two enormous provinces of unusual rock that sit at the bottom of the mantle, just above the Earth’s core. One of them is located underneath Africa and one is under the Pacific Ocean. They’re called Large Low Shear Velocity Provinces (LLSVPs) and they may shape hotspot formation and volcanic activity across the globe.
The LLSVPs are areas where seismic shear waves propagate much more slowly. They extend laterally for thousands of miles (we think), and they may be up to 1,000km “tall.” Geologists…
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