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Earth's Mystery Core Plumbed

Japanese geophysicist floats theory of lifecycle for Earth's plates

By Wesley Oliver,  Newser Staff

Posted Jan 27, 2008 9:32 AM CST
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(Newser) – Climate change has sparked heated debate about the Earth’s surface, but a controversial new theory is directing scientists to its core, Der Spiegel reports. To explain why contintental plates drift on the surface of the Earth's molten mantle, Maruyama Shigenori, a leading geophysicist, argues that continents actually have life cycles. Old, cold plates on continental fringes sink to “plate graveyards” deep in the Earth’s mantle, and then rise again, creating volcanoes.

“School textbooks will soon have to be revised or at least supplemented,” one geophysicist said. "Up until now, the movement of the continental plates has been generally described as a two-dimensional phenomenon, but today experts agree that it's fueled by three-dimensional convection movements deep below the surface."

Maruyama Shigenori is convinced that he understands what happens deep below our feet: The continental drift that we observe on the surface of the Earth has its counterpart in the Earth's mantle. Old, cold plates are pushed down into the Earth's mantle on the continental edges, he explains.
Maruyama Shigenori is convinced that he understands what happens deep below our feet: "The continental drift that we observe on the surface of the Earth has its counterpart in the Earth's mantle. Old,...   (Index Stock)
Maruyama has other goals: he wants to find out if the continents will merge again in 250 million years to form a single super-continent; how meteorites change the chemical composition of the Earth; and what the connection is between the temperature of a planet and its magnetic field. This, explains...
Maruyama has other goals: he wants to find out if the continents will merge again in 250 million years to form a single super-continent; how meteorites change the chemical composition of the Earth; and...   (Index Stock)
The Anak Krakatau (Child of Krakatau) volcano sends up powerful clouds of hot gasses and rocks Wednesday Nov. 7, 2007 in the Sunda Straits between Java and Sumatra, Indonesia. (AP Photo/Ed Wray)
The Anak Krakatau (Child of Krakatau) volcano sends up powerful clouds of hot gasses and rocks Wednesday Nov. 7, 2007 in the Sunda Straits between Java and Sumatra, Indonesia. (AP Photo/Ed Wray)   (Associated Press)
One Japanese geophysicist says he has found the key to continental movement: the earth's plates, when old and cold, sink to planet's heated interior, but eventually rise back to the surface. The continental drift that we observe on the surface of the Earth has its counterpart in the Earth's mantle,...
One Japanese geophysicist says he has found the key to continental movement: the earth's plates, when old and cold, sink to planet's heated interior, but eventually rise back to the surface. "The continental...   (Index Stock)
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Japan • Earth • geology • continents • life cycle • Maruyama Shigenori • tectonic plates • volcanoes • molten rock • Earth's interior

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