Mysterious blobs inside Earth triggered plate tectonics, study suggests
Some 4.5 billion years ago, a Mars-sized object smashed into the nascent Earth, spinning off our moon. Now a team of scientists proposes this giant impact did even more: The collision left behind mysterious blobs within Earth’s interior that may have helped kick off plate tectonics — the geologic process that fuels earthquakes, volcanoes and generally allows life to exist on our planet.
The idea, fleshed out with computer modeling in a new study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, is an attempt to answer one of the most fundamental questions about our home world.
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