News From the Field

A stiff new layer in Earth's mantle


March 23, 2015

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By crushing minerals between diamonds, a University of Utah study suggests the existence of an unknown layer inside Earth: Part of the lower mantle where the rock gets three times stiffer. The discovery may explain a mystery: Why slabs of Earth's sinking tectonic plates sometimes stall and thicken 930 miles underground.Full Story

Source
University of Utah

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