Using ricocheted vibrations from dynamite blasts, researchers have glimpsed a layer of gooey material sandwiched between the Pacific tectonic plate and the underlying mantle. If present beneath all plates, the layer of partially melted rock could help explain how tectonic plates slide around Earth’s surface so easily, the researchers report in the Feb. 5 Nature.
“A weak, slippery base essentially decouples the plate from the sticky, underlying mantle,” says lead author Tim Stern, a geophysicist at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. “This gives us a good idea about the forces required to push and pull the plates around.”