Scientists have discovered hidden treasures in the Earth's mantle. Hidden deep within Earth's mantle are two colossal ...

Nobody knew what they are, and whether they are only a temporary phenomenon, or if they have been sitting there for millions ...

Using a nearly 200-year record of lava chemistry from Kīlauea and Maunaloa, earth scientists from the University of Hawaiʻi ...

Continent-size islands deep inside Earth's mantle could be more than a billion years old, a new study finds.

These ancient buried "super-continents"—known to scientists as large low-seismic-velocity provinces (LLSVPs)—were found lurking below Africa and the Pacific Ocean, entombed some 1,200 miles below the ...

Using a nearly 200-year record of lava chemistry from Kīlauea and Maunaloa, Earth scientists from the University of Hawai'i ...

Schematic representation of the process of subduction of tectonic plates and of a mantle plume rising from an LLSVP. In the latter, the mineral grains are larger than those in the subducted plates.

"The Earth's mantle is the engine that drives all these phenomena. Take, for example, mantle plumes, which are large bubbles of hot material that rise from the Earth's deep interior as in a lava ...

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. New research suggests that the blobs buried deep in Earth's mantle may be a billion years old.