Swiss scientists discover unusual zones in Earth's mantle

Using high-resolution models to study the Earth's mantle, scientists have identified zones of rocks in the lower mantle layer that are colder, or have a different composition, than surrounding rocks. This challenges our current understanding of the Earth's plate tectonics. +Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox Using a new high-resolution model, scientists have discovered areas in the Earth's interior that look like the remains of submerged plates. "Yet, these are not located where they were expected; instead, they are under large oceans or in the interior of continents – far away from plate boundaries," the Swiss federal technology institute ETH Zurich wrote in a press release on Tuesday. The research was carried out jointly by geophysicists from ETH Zurich and the California Institute of Technology and was recently published in the Scientific Reports journal. Up to now, such plates have always been discovered where they were expected, according to ETH Zurich.