Earth’s interior swallowed up half the original mass of India and Eurasia: Scientists rewrite Geology

Q.  Which country’s original mass disappeared into the earth’s interior 60 million years ago, according to scientists?
- Published on 13 Oct 16

a. Africa
b. India
c. Sri Lanka
d. None of the above

ANSWER: India
 
Half the original mass of India and Eurasia was swallowed up by the Earth’s interior 60 million years ago, before the two landmasses commenced their slow motion collision.
  • Study conducted by University of Chicago researchers has important implications for understanding how the contents grew to their present size and the chemistry of earth’s interior has evolved
  • The collision of Eurasia and India which commenced 60 million years ago created the Himalayas; it is still in slow progress
  • The scientists computed the amount of landmass or continental crust prior to and after the collision
  • They found half of the mass that was there 60 million years ago is missing from the surface of the earth today.
  • Researchers concluded that this mass discrepancy could only be explained if the missing chunk had gone back down to the earth’s mantle- scientists considered this impossible on such a scale before
  • According to plate tectonic theory, the earth’s surface comprises a mosaic of rigid plates in relative motion
  • Plates move atop the upper mantle and plates topped with thicker, buoyant continental crusts ride higher than those topped with thinner oceanic crusts
  • Oceanic crust can dip and slid into the mantle which mixes together with the mantle material.
  • Continental crust like the one involving the Eurasia-Indian collision is less dense and geologists have believed that when the mantle is touched by t, it pushes up back, never mixing back in
  • But now, researchers have found out that significant amounts of crust have disappeared and the only place it could go into is the mantle
  • Earlier the scientists used to think that the mantle and the crust interacted only in a minor way
  • Computing the crust before was a problem involving careful dating of the strata and reconstruction of the past plate positions
  • Scientists concluded the based on precise calculation that amount of mass before and after the collision and careful accounting of the same, the earth’s crust was absorbed by the mantle

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