A new study by an international group of scientists is questioning the conventional theory of the formation of the continents by the movement of tectonic plates.
According to the journal Geology with reference to an international team of scholars, it was found that the composition of the rocks does not correspond to the theory of subduction, which suggests that the earth’s plates move over one another, forming mountains and oceans.
The researchers used the method of stable isotopes to determine the processes that influenced the birth of the continental plates and mantle. So we measured the isotopes of iron and zinc in the rocks of the mountains of South Africa and Central Siberia.
It turned out that the chemical composition of the samples is not as expected. According to the researchers, if they were formed as a result of subduction, the ratio of the isotopes of iron and zinc would be very low or very high, but it was the same as in non-subduction high-rocks.
Our study offers new but as yet unknown theory of formation of continents of the Earth, — said one of the study’s authors, Dr Luc-Serge Doucet.
The magnetic field of our planet almost a billion years older than previously thought. To such conclusion the group of scientists from USA, Japan and Canada. By analyzing the materials of the excavations in Australia, researchers have confirmed the existence of a period of incredibly strong magnetic field of the Earth. The results of measurements published in the journal Рroceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that the period of super powerful magnetic fields began and ended about 4 billion years ago. In the field study helped “witnesses”. They are magnetic minerals, rising from the depths of the Earth, wrote NEWS.ru.
