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Ever since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay initially ascended to the top of Mount Everest in 1953, scaling the tallest mountain on Earth has become an ambition for nearly all dedicated climbers worldwide.

However, this renowned peak dims when compared to two hidden mountains, which are more than 100 times taller than Everest’s 8,800-meter summit, as scientists have found out.

Rising up to approximately 620 miles (1,000 km), these continental-scale “islands” of stone overshadow every other formation on Earth.

Nevertheless, bewildered explorers can take comfort.

Researchers from Utrecht University have disclosed that these massive mountain ranges do not exist on Earth’s exterior.

Rather, they are located approximately 1,200 miles (2,000 km) below our feet.

The researchers believe that the mountains are at least 500 million years old, though they might trace back to when Earth was formed about four billion years ago.

Dr Arwen Deuss, the lead researcher, states: “The nature of these phenomena remains unknown, along with their duration—whether they are fleeting occurrences or have persisted for millions, possibly even billions, of years.”

The two gigantic formations are positioned at the border separating Earth’s core from the mantle, the partly solid layer under the crust, located beneath Africa and the Pacific Ocean.

Surrounding them is a ‘cemetery’ of submerged tectonic plates that have been forced below the surface through a phenomenon known as subduction.

A recent study reveals that the islands are significantly warmer compared to the adjacent sections of the Earth’s crust and are believed to be hundreds of million years older.

Scientists have known for decades that there
Large formations lie concealed deep inside the Earth’s mantle.
.

This is possible thanks to the way that the seismic shockwaves from earthquakes spread through the planet’s interior.

When a powerful earthquake happens, it rings Earth like a bell,
causing ripples across the entire globe
.

However, when these waves travel through a dense or hot medium, they get slowed down, weakened, or even bounced back entirely.

Therefore, by attentively hearing the ‘tonalities’ reaching the opposite end of the globe, researchers can construct an image of what exists underneath.

Over the years, studies have revealed that there are two enormous regions of the mantle where shockwaves dramatically slow down, dubbed the Large Low Seismic Velocity Provinces (LLSVPs).

Dr Deuss says: ‘The waves slow down because the LLSVPs are hot, just like you can’t run as fast in hot weather as you can when it’s colder.’

When waves pass through a region that is much hotter, they need to expend a lot more energy to make their way through.

Co-author Dr Sujania Talavera-Soza says: ‘Just like when the weather is hot outside and you go for a run, you don’t only slow down but you also get more tired than when it is cold outside.’

That means you would expect the tone of a wave passing through the hot LLSVPs to be both out of tune and quieter than other areas, an effect scientists call damping.

Nevertheless, upon analyzing the data, the researchers were astonished to uncover a markedly distinct scenario.

“Contrary to what we expected, we discovered minimal dampening in the LLSVPs, causing the sounds to resonate loudly,” explains Dr Talavera-Soza.

‘However, we discovered significant dampening in the chilled slab cemetery, where the sounds were extremely muted.’

Rocks from the Earth’s crust contribute significantly to damping effects as they descend toward the core, transforming into a compact structure through recrystallization.

This indicates that the mountains consist of significantly bigger grains compared to the adjacent slabs, as these larger grains would not absorb as much energy from propagating seismic waves.

Dr. Talavera-Sosa states, “Those mineral grains didn’t appear instantly; this indicates just one possibility: LLSVPs are significantly more ancient compared to the neighboring slab cemeteries.”

On the lower end, the scientists reckon these hidden mountain ranges have existed for a minimum of half a billion years.

However, they might be significantly older, possibly tracing all the way back to when the Earth was formed.

This contradicts the conventional belief that the mantle is perpetually moving.

Even though the mantle isn’t truly liquid, it behaves similarly to one across vast geological periods.

Earlier, it was believed that the mantle would thus be ‘thoroughly mixed’ due to circulating currents.

However, since these formations are billions of years old, it indicates that they have not been displaced or disturbed by mantle convection, suggesting that the mantle might not be as thoroughly mixed as previously thought.

Recently, scientists have proposed that the LLSVPs could be leftovers from an early planet that collided with Earth billions of years ago.

Certain scholars argue that the moon came into being when
A planetary body named Theia, about the size of Mars, crashed into Earth.
, dislodging molten pieces from both planets and sending them into orbit.

As the Moon is significantly smaller than the proposed mass of Theia
This naturally raises the question of what happened to the rest of the planet.

Scientists from the California Institute of Technology have proposed that
The LLSVPs might be remnants of the Theia impact.

Following a battery of simulations, the scientists discovered that a considerable quantity of ‘Theian’ substance – approximately 2 percent of Earth’s mass – likely infiltrated the lower mantle of the primordial Earth.

This could be why those areas appear significantly more dense, hotter, and older compared to the nearby slab cemetery.

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