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Name : Indian Ocean geoid low-pitched
Location : Laccadive Sea , southwest of India
A map showing how water elevation and distribution would change due to gravity if the effects of tides and currents were removed.
Why it ’s incredible : The vast gravity pickle formed on the site of a prehistoric ocean .
The Indian Ocean " graveness jam " is the situation of the deepest dent in Earth ’s gravitational field . It ’s a round ocean region with a gravitational clout that ’s so weak , sea levels are 348 feet ( 106 meters ) lower there than elsewhere on Earth . unwrap in 1948 , the origins of this gargantuan gravity kettle of fish — or geoid humbled , as it is technically call — rest a whodunit until of late .
Related:‘A force more herculean than gravity within the Earth ' : How magnetism lock itself inside our major planet
The hole traverse 1.2 million straight mile ( 3.1 million hearty kilometers ) and sit 746 Roman mile ( 1,200 klick ) southwest of India . Various theory have tried to excuse its existence since geophysicists first observe its ghost , butthe answer only came in 2023with a study published in the journalGeophysical Research Letters . investigator used 19 estimator mannequin to simulate the motion of Earth ’s mantle and architectonic plates over the past 140 million years , and then tease out the scenario give way rise to a geoid low similar to the existent - life one .
The discipline indicated that the Indian Ocean gravity hole take shape after the dying of an ancient ocean phone Tethys , which existed between the supercontinents Laurasia and Gondwana . Tethys seat on a clump of Earth ’s cheekiness that splay beneath the Eurasian plate during the breakup of Gondwana 180 million years ago . As this chance , shattered shard of the incrustation sank deep into the pall .
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Around 20 million eld ago , as these fragments landed in the lowermost region of the mantle , they can high - density material originating from the " African blob " — a succinct house of cards of crystalise magma , 100 times taller thanMount Everest , that is trapped beneath Africa . Plumes of humiliated - density magma heighten to replace the dull cloth , diminish the overall mass of the region and weakening its gravity .
scientist are yet to confirm these manakin anticipation with earthquake information , which could help to avow the existence of low - density plumes beneath the hole . Meanwhile , investigator arerealizing more and morethat Earth ’s magmais full of unknown blobs , including some that were thought to be missing and haveturned up in unexpected blank space .
And it ’s not just Earth — exploration of Mars , too , haverevealed blob of all shapes and sizeslurking below the planet ’s surface .
break moreincredible places , where we play up the fantastic history and scientific discipline behind some of the most dramatic landscape on Earth .
