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The discovery of buried " mud waves " off the slide of western Africa discover that the Atlantic Ocean was born at least 4 million years to begin with than scientist antecedently thought .
These wave , each hundreds of base high and over half a geographical mile ( 1 kilometer ) long , were have by the admixture of super salty water from the southerly hemisphere with less - salty piddle from the northern hemisphere as South America and Africa tear asunder 117 million long time ago , forming the Atlantic , according to raw research publish in the June issue of the journalGlobal and Planetary Change .
The “mud waves” discovered off the coast of Africa, under the Atlantic Ocean, are hundreds of feet high and almost a mile long.
Previously , the Atlantic was think to havefinished openingbetween 113 million and perhaps 72 million years ago .
The giant waves were retrieve in sediment cores drilled from 0.6 mile ( 1 km ) below the Davy Jones’s locker about 250 nautical mile ( 400 km ) west of Guinea - Bissau in 1975 , as part of theDeep Sea Drilling Project . The sea - drilling project confirm that Earth ’s surface is broken into pot of ever - move architectonic plates .
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The mud waves formed when water from the north and south, with very different salinities, were mixed together following the final split of South America and Africa.
In further take these cores , Heriot - Watt University geologistsDébora DuarteandUisdean Nicholsonfound evidence of immense mud waves in this part , which would have been the last spot to pull aside when Africa and South America stock split .
" Imagine one - kilometre - long waves , a few hundred metres high-pitched : a whole field formed in one particular location to the west of the Guinea Plateau , just at the last ' pinch - point ' of the separating continents of South America and Africa , " Nicholson said in astatement . " They formed because of dense , piquant piddle cascading out of the freshly form gateway . "
Before the Atlantic split South America and Africa for good , the final connection between the two continents would have been a series of deep basin , which were probably lake , Duarte said in the statement .
Reconstruction of the final stages of the separation of Africa and South America, with a series of basins between the North and South Atlantic.
At that time , the South Atlantic was rich in Strategic Arms Limitation Talks deposits that made its H2O very saline solution , while the North Atlantic was less piquant . This departure in brininess induce huge currents when the northerly and southern Atlantic water mix . The current , in turn , created the tremendous clay wave along the seabed .
Over the eon , more deposit has bury the waves , locking them below the surface .
The existence of these wave 117 million year ago also suggests that the opening of the Atlantic cause Earth ’s climate to warm up , Duarte said .
The mud waves were buried beneath sediment over 117 million years, the researchers found.
— Atlantic ocean currents are soften — and it could make the climate in some regions unrecognisable
— Do the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans mix ?
— Where do ocean currents come from ?
The basin that flooded in the last rifting of South America and Africa were plenteous in C , and the birth of the ocean would have made the sequestering of C less efficient . This reduced efficiency lead to a full point of warming between 117 million and 110 million years ago , the researchers said . After that , the ocean currents that circulate throughout the Atlantic stabilized , leading to a period of cooling .
" This shows that the gateway played a really important use in world-wide climate change , " Duarte sound out in the financial statement .
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