How to tell if the loaf of bread in your oven is cooked? You can see the outside is nicely browned, but you can’t see the middle – is it doughy still? Give it a tap and listen. If it sounds hollow then it’s ready. The sound of the tap passes through cooked bread differently than through… Continue reading The Constitution of the Interior of Earth, as Revealed by Earthquakes
Category: Deep earth
Subduction is not the end
Subduction is just the beginning. Stuck on the surface of the earth as we are, it’s easy to think that when oceanic lithosphere is destroyed when it vanishes into the mantle. But this is wrong. The more we manage to peer into the earth’s depths, the more clearly we see that subducted oceanic lithosphere is still… Continue reading Subduction is not the end
Six amazing facts about what’s under your feet
Just 100s km away from you are right now there is a place where rocks can flow, where once-living matter is turned in jewels, from where deadly plumes once killed nearly all life on earth. We can never visit this place – even though it’s right under you. 1. Human beings will never reach the deep… Continue reading Six amazing facts about what’s under your feet