Mountains have long intrigued scientists due to their fundamental role in shaping the Earth’s surface. However, a groundbreaking study led by Colorado State University has revealed that the underlying mountain-forming processes are much more complex than previously believed.
Titled “Calabrian forearc uplift generated by slab-mantle interaction during subduction retreat”, the study focuses on subduction zones, especially in southern Italy, and shows that the movement of a tectonic plate through the Earth’s mantle and its influence on mantle flow plays an important role in the process of mountain formation, also known as Orogeny.
This finding challenges the conventional wisdom about crustal contraction and thickening as the main driving force of mountain building, providing a more nuanced perspective on the subject.
Lead author Sean Gallen, assistant professor of geosciences at CSU, and his team reconstructed the extensive history of mountain building in southern Italy using datasets and methods renew. Their approach involves taking advantage of the geological features of the region’s landscape as a means to elucidate the complex processes at play.
One tectonic plate dives beneath another in subduction zones such as Calabria, southern Italy, creating mountains through the contraction and thickening of the Earth’s crust
By combining measurements covering both short and long geologic timescales, from thousands to tens of millions of years, the team effectively used the landscape as a “geological tape recorder” to reconstruct recreate tectonic history.
Surprising findings and implications
The researchers encountered unexpected results that Gallen described as “confounding.” Traditionally, scientists predict a correlation between the rate at which one plate descends beneath another over time and the uplift history of the corresponding rock.
However, the study’s findings challenge this assumption. Instead, the team found that the main factor controlling rock uplift in the Calabrian mountains is the movement of the lower plate through the Earth’s mantle and its influence on the mantle’s flow field .
“We expected to see a correlation between the rate at which one plate dips below the other over time and the uplift history of our rocks, but we didn’t see that,” Gallen said.
Gallen emphasized the importance of these results, noting that they differ from the usual understanding of mountain formation. While theoretical models suggest the influence of deeper processes on Earth, this study provides the first experimental evidence of such mechanisms operating in nature. However, Gallen acknowledges that more data is needed to validate their interpretation, even though it is supported by existing numerical models.
“The profiles we created imply that underground signals appear to dominate what is happening on the surface. I have been working in the Mediterranean for 15 years and this result has profoundly changed the way I think about these subduction zones.”
Revolutionizing techniques for understanding mountain formation
One remarkable aspect of this research lies in the newly developed techniques for building a long history of rock support. The team built a unified framework by integrating various standard geomorphological measurements, including thermodynamics, astrobiological nuclei, bedrock river profiles and sea level analysis in the region. the past is observed at the sea steps. This multifaceted approach allows them to extend their study further into geologic time and introduces unique limitations to their modeling efforts.
The software was developed as a basis for the research and has been published in journals Natural Geosciences, is easily accessible to other researchers. Gallen hopes that these innovative techniques will stimulate further research and lead to new discoveries in other geographical areas.
These findings have the potential to revolutionize our understanding of mountain formation in subduction zones, providing a more comprehensive and nuanced view of the complex dynamics that shape planetary surfaces. our. Furthermore, the groundbreaking techniques developed by the team will pave the way for future research and advancements in the field of geosciences.
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Source: pagasa.edu.vn