Sinking Tectonic Slab Stalls at Superviscous Layer in Lower Mantle (IMAGE)
Caption
A simplified image of a slab from one of Earth's tectonic plates sinking through the upper mantle above, through the boundary between the upper and lower mantle 410 miles deep, then stalling and pooling at a depth of 930 miles, where University of Utah experiments suggest the existence of an extremely stiff or viscous layer in Earth. Such a layer may explain why tectonic plate slabs seem to pool at 930 miles under Indonesia and South America's Pacific coast. Below the highly viscous zone, slabs can continue to sink to the core-mantle boundary.
Credit
Lowell Miyagi, University of Utah
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