A rock plunged 90 kilometers into Earth and revealed something unexpected

Scientists discovered a rock in Papua New Guinea that plunged more than 90 kilometers beneath Earth’s surface, revealing a bizarre temperature pattern that challenges established theories of Earth’s interior. The unexpected shift from unusually hot to relatively cold conditions could transform our understanding of tectonic plate movements, earthquakes, and volcanoes. A rock plunged 90 kilometers into Earth and revealed something unexpected.

An international research team led by Göttingen University found that the rock traveled more than 90 kilometers (56 miles) underground about four million years ago. Along the way, it experienced unusually high temperatures at shallower depths before entering conditions associated with a relatively cooler type of subduction. The discovery raises new questions about how heat is distributed inside Earth and how tectonic plates behave as they descend.

The findings were published in Nature Geoscience. A Strange Discovery Deep Beneath Earth’s Surface Earth’s outer shell is divided into enormous tectonic plates that slowly move across the planet. When two plates converge, one can be forced beneath the other and sink into Earth’s interior.