Experts suggest that the supercontinent began breaking apart around 200 million years ago\u2014a timeline that has been widely accepted as geological history for decades. But an international research team may be challenging that notion. A new study published in the journal Geology<\/a> suggests that a giant, hot blob split Greenland from North America 80 million years ago\u2014and now, it\u2019s heading toward New York<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cThis thermal upwelling has long been a puzzling feature of North American geology<\/a>.\u201d lead author of the study Tom Gernon said in a press release<\/a>. \u201cOur research suggests it\u2019s part of a much larger, slow-moving process deep underground that could potentially help explain why mountain ranges like the Appalachians are still standing.\u201d<\/p>\n Related Story<\/p>\n The hot zone on which the study focused is a feature called the Northern Appalachian Anomaly (NAA), residing deep beneath the crust. Experts estimate that the molten rock mass is around 350 kilometers (218 miles) wide, and it currently sits 200 kilometers (124 miles) beneath the Appalachian Mountains<\/a> in New England. <\/p>\n Using geodynamic simulations, tectonic plate reconstructions, and seismic tomography data, researchers traced the origins of the mass back to the Labrador Sea, where Canada and Greenland<\/a> began splitting around 80 million years ago. Researchers estimate that the blob migrates at a rate of 20 kilometers (12 miles) per million years. Per the team\u2019s calculations, the mass is steadily heading toward New York City\u2014but Yankees fans, fear not! Experts anticipate the center of the anomaly won\u2019t pass through the Big Apple for the next 15 trillion years. <\/p>\n The study expands on recent research that proposed a new idea called the \u201cmantle wave\u201d theory, which posits that the molten material beneath Earth\u2019s surface<\/a> behaves almost like a lava lamp. When continents divide, hot, dense rock bubbles off the base of tectonic plates, and the \u201cwaves\u201d move across continents\u2019 lower surfaces. Once beneath the base of a continent, the heat from the blob works like the fire in a hot air balloon<\/a>, making the continent more buoyant. Researchers believe this phenomenon could\u2019ve caused ancient mountains to be \u201cfurther uplifted\u201d over the past few million years. <\/p>\n Related Story<\/p>\n \u201cOur earlier research shows that these \u2018drips\u2019 of rock can form in series, like domino stones when they fall one after the other, and sequentially migrate over time,\u201d co-author Sascha Brune said in the press release. \u201cThe feature we see beneath New England is very likely one of these drips, which originated far from where it now sits.\u201d<\/p>\n Needless to say, this is certainly an example of \u201cslow and steady wins the race\u201d\u2014at least when it comes to forming the continents<\/a>. According to Gernon, there is still a lot to learn about how the continents came to be arranged in the way we see them today. <\/p>\n
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