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North American Continent is a Layer Cake, Scientists Discover


August 25, 2010

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The North American continent is not one thick, rigid slab, but a layer cake of ancient, 3-billion-year-old rock on top of much newer material probably less than 1 billion years old, according to a new study by University of California, Berkeley, seismologists. The new findings by Barbara Romanowicz and Huaiyu Yuan also indicate that the continent grew by the addition of rock from subducting ocean floor, not by mantle plume upwelling from below.Full Story

Source
University of California, Berkeley

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