Ocean floor 'birth' in Indian Ocean is recorded for first time
Scientists have successfully recorded the birth of new seafloor in the Indian Ocean for the first time using a specialized subaquatic observatory. The event, triggered by tectonic tremors, allowed researchers to observe magma hardening into new crust in real time.
Why it matters
This discovery provides unprecedented data on tectonic plate movement and the geological evolution of the Earth's crust.
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Add The New York Post on Google They were absolutely floored.
For the first time ever, scientists have recorded the birth of a seafloor in real time, way down in the Southern Hemisphere, according to a groundbreaking report in the journal Nature.
“We did not dream of capturing such a massive event,” marine geophysicist Jean-Yves Royer of the French National Center of Scientific Research told ScienceAlert.
The expert was referring to an ultra-secretive tectonic tango that occurs at depths where the sun doesn’t shine.
At the certain ridges on the ocean floor, the rock plates comprising our planet’s crust collide, pushing old crust under.
At other intersections, they come apart, prompting magma to burble forth and harden, forming a new layer of ocean floor — much like a snake shedding and regrowing its skin.
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