A team led by researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in US recently uncover the existence of a 1500 kilometre long passageway deep beneath Panama in Central America and the Galapagos Islands in East Pacific Ocean.
Materials from the Earth’s middle layer, the mantle, blow through a slab window below Panama in what they call ‘mantle wind’.
The discovery came to light after the researchers team discover “anomalous geochemical compositions” underneath Panama.
Their findings were publish in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences back in November.
David Bekaert, postdoctoral scholar at WHOI, and lead author of the paper, tells:
The findings of the research show that a wind similar to what blows on Earth’s surface also blows laterally through shallow parts of the middle layer after originating in the deep interiors.
This is a rare finding as generally material is unable to pass through as the edges of tectonic plates, called “slabs” acts as barriers.
But the channel under Panama seems to have a “slab window” allowing the “mantle wind” to flow through.
Lead author Bekaert Said :
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