The Earth's core may surround an ancient ocean floor with mountains five times taller than Everest

Scientists from the University of Alabama (USA) created the most detailed geological map of the southern hemisphere of our planet and came to the conclusion that its core could be encased in the floor of an ancient ocean, on which are located gigantic mountains - approximately five times higher Everest.

Geologists have long been baffled by the boundary between the mantle and core, located about 3,200 kilometers below the Earth's surface. It is called the ultra-low velocity zone (ULVZ) because seismic waves suddenly slow down in this area.

To better understand this anomaly, the authors used 15 monitoring stations in the ice of Antarctica to map seismic waves from earthquakes over three years.

The first thing we found out is that the ULVZ zone is much wider than previously thought. It was "present over a large portion of the southern hemisphere," suggesting the layer covers the entire core.

The authors then created several computer models to determine the composition of this region. Modeling has shown that it may consist of pieces of ancient crust that were absorbed from the surface over centuries during the movement of tectonic plates.

Due to its composition, the ocean floor is an ideal candidate for this layer, the authors note. It is very dense and heavy enough to fall through the mantle. And there it encountered strong pressure from the core and became more heat-resistant, which leads to a slowdown of seismic waves.

However, before this new layer hits the scientific books, more research will be needed to rule out other possible explanations.

It is also possible that the ULVZ could be caused by unknown material formed as a result of unique chemical reactions that may have occurred at the center of the Earth millions of years ago. There are no convincing refutations of these theories yet, so the authors of the work plan to continue to get to the bottom of the truth.