‘Ghost’ Plume Discovered Beneath Oman Could Clarify India’s Historic Tectonic Shift

A protracted-hidden plume of magma beneath Oman’s Salma Plateau could have performed a stunning position in shaping the Indian subcontinent’s historical journey, researchers report. This “ghost” plume — scorching materials trapped beneath Earth’s thick crust — can’t erupt however could have shifted the Indian tectonic plate’s course throughout its dramatic collision with Eurasia tens of tens of millions of years in the past. First detailed within the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, the discovering reveals a brand new class of deep mantle plumes that form continents silently, with out the standard signature of floor volcanoes.

Hidden ‘Ghost’ Plume Beneath Oman Could Have Steered India’s Collision Path with Eurasia

As per a Dwell Science report, the plume was detected utilizing seismic knowledge from Oman’s dense sensor community. Underneath the management of geophysicist Simone Pilia, the group found that the plume altered the way in which sound waves moved by way of Earth’s layers, which in flip pointed to its presence. In contrast to most mantle plumes, which rise and erupt by way of the oceanic plates, Dani is amagmatic and doesn’t create floor eruptions due to the thick continental crust above the plume. This discovering implies that there could probably be many hidden plumes lurking beneath continents.

The Dani plume is the primary such non-eruptive plume beneath a continental plate, which is broadening scientists’ view of how mantle dynamics unfold out of sight. The researchers additionally calculated the motion of the Indian plate and located that it took a major flip between 40 and 25 million years in the past, which could have been affected by the shear stress created by the plume. The plume’s results on topography are anticipated to be small regionally, however its geological position could possibly be comparatively giant.

Whereas plumes sometimes depart a visual volcanic path—like Hawaii’s island chain—the Dani plume’s proof could have been erased by subduction exercise within the close by Makran zone. Nonetheless, researchers say this discovering opens the door to discovering extra “ghost” plumes, notably in areas with related thick crusts, equivalent to Africa. As seismic applied sciences advance, extra silent subterranean forces shaping Earth’s historical past could come to mild.