Jakarta –
Deep beneath the Pacific Ocean, an enormous geological superstructure has been growing since the Cretaceous period. The formation of this superstructure was triggered by an area of intraplate volcanism that was wider than England.
In a new study, geologists tried to piece together information on how the Melanesian Border Plateau formed. They concluded that the plains were formed through several different waves of volcanism, starting when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and continuing to the present day.
The seabed is scattered with countless seamounts and ridges, as well as larger volcanic structures. It is often assumed that underwater features like this were formed by sudden volcanic disturbances. This event has the potential to be a major disaster and trigger major environmental changes.
However, this latest research shows that the Melanesian Border Plateau has a more complicated background. Located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, this superstructure appears to have formed over millions of years through a slow burning process that took place in four distinct stages.
“There are several features in the Pacific basin, and scientists only have one sample, this looks like a very large single event,” said Kevin Konrad, study leader and Assistant Professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, quoted from Live Science.
“Sometimes when we sample these features in detail, we realize that they were actually built in several stages over tens of millions of years and would not have had a significant environmental impact,” Konrad continued.
To reach their findings, the team conducted geochemical analyzes on samples taken from the Melanesian Border Plateau region, the Western Samoa Seamounts, the Eastern Samoa Seamount Province, and the Tuvalu Seamount Chain region.
This suggests that the origins of the superstructure began in the Cretaceous period around 120 million years ago with giant lava outbursts, creating a series of seamounts.
In the second phase, between 56 million and 33.9 million years ago, the lithosphere, Earth’s rocky outer shell, passed through a volcanic region called the Arago hotspot, creating more seamounts and several oceanic islands. These islands eventually erode and sink below the surface.
Third, advance to a more recent era, the Miocene epoch, 23 million to 5 million years ago. The same islands and underwater mountains were reactivated and new volcanoes formed when Earth’s lithosphere passed over another hotspot, the Samoan hotspot. This volcanic hotspot still gives rise to new islands today.
Finally, in the period that is still ongoing today, new volcanic eruptions on the plateau appeared because the lithosphere had changed shape due to the retreat of the Pacific plate beneath the Tonga Trench.
This is complex information, which the researchers think will provide a more nuanced picture of how some underwater features form. To describe the geological products of this multi-stage event, the team proposed the term ‘Mid-Ocean Plate Superstructure’.
Watch the video “Scientists Say Humans Have Pushed Earth into the ‘Planetary Boundary’ Danger Zone”
(rns/fyk)
2024-01-15 22:45:29
#Strange #Giant #Structure #Forms #Floor #Pacific #Ocean
